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CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION 
1775-1818 



To this Essay was awarded the 

Justin Winsor Pkize 

in American History 

for 1916 



Connecticut 
in Transition 



1775-1818 



B¥ 



RICHARD J. PURCELL, Ph.D. 



WASHINGTON: AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 

LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD 

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 

1918 






A Limited Edition of This Essay Has Been Printed and the 
Type Distributed 



Copyright, 1918 

By The American Historical Association 

Washington, D. C. 



;: 






COMPOSED and printed at the 

WAVERLY PRESS 

By the Williams & Wilkins Company 

Baltimore, Md. , U. S. A. 



'CLA51.2506 



y 



In Memory 

of 
My Father 



PREFACE 

HP HIS study of an epoch in the history of Con- 
-*• necticut was begun at the suggestion of 
Professor Max Farrand. Under his scholarly guid- 
ance it gradually took the form of a doctoral dis- 
sertation and was submitted to the faculty of the 
Graduate School of Yale University. At the Yale 
Commencement of 1916 it was awarded the John 
Addison Porter prize. Since the award to the 
writer of the Justin Winsor prize, the essay has 
been revised and somewhat abridged, especially 
with reference to charts and notes. Among those 
who have read the manuscript, I desire to express 
my appreciation for suggestions to Mr. Anson 
Phelps Stokes, the secretary of Yale University, 
and to Professor Carl Russell Fish of the University 
of Wisconsin. 

Richard J. Purcell. 
College of St. Thomas, 
St. Paul, Minnesota. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Introduction 1 

I. 1. The Rise of Infidelity to 1801 5 

2. The Religious Life of Yale College 22 

3. The Religious Revival after 1801 30 

4. The Liberalizing of Calvinism 39 

II. 1. The Protestant Episcopal Church 46 

2. The Strict Congregationalists 65 

3. The Baptist Church 66 

4. The Methodist-Episcopal Church. 81 

5. The Smaller Religious Bodies 89 

6. Common Grievances of Dissenters 92 

III. 1. Banks and the Increase of Capital 98 

2. Shipping and Carrying Trade 113 

3. Manufactures 119 

IV. 1. Emigration and Western Lands 139 

2. Agriculture and Sheep Raising 158 

V. The Working Government 174 

VI. Rise of the Democratic-Republican Party 227 

VII. Federal Party Organization 299 

VIII. Success of the Reform Party 332 



x CONTENTS 

IX. Completion of the Revolution 373 

Appendix 420 

Bibliography 421 

Index 457 

MAPS 

Ecclesiastical Map (1818) facing 97 

Vote for Governor, April, 1817 349 

Vote on Constitution by Towns (1818) 412 



INTRODUCTION 

fl^HE Revolutionary generation and its sons 
-■■ witnessed a remarkable revolution in the 
character of the old commonwealth of Connecticut ; 
they lived through an era of transition from 1775 
to 1 81 8. Connecticut passed from a colonial de- 
pendency into a sovereign state. This all men 
realized. They did not recognize, however, that 
this was only the beginning and that at best it was 
a change in form rather than in spirit, in theory 
rather than in practice. Contemporaries were quite 
unaware of the gradual growth from an aristo- 
cratic, paternalistic into a modern democratic state. 
That they overlooked this is not surprising, for the 
famed "steady habits" were bettered or under- 
mined, as you will, by a natural movement of 
forces imperceptibly gradual in action. 

Other colonies had internal revolutionary strug- 
gles which have been aptly compared with the 
national revolt from the mother-land. Massachu- 
setts, Vermont, the Carolinas, Virginia and Penn- 
sylvania had seen alinements of the frontier de- 
mocracy over against the governing aristocracy of 
the settled tide-water regions. There had been vir- 
tual Declarations of Independence on the part of 
the West and threatened or actual resort to force, 
before the East acceded to their demands for ade- 
quate representation and protection against the In- 
dians. In Connecticut such was not the case ; for 

1 



2 INTRODUCTION 

there was no real frontier, no essentially frontier 
grievances, and no racial lines. If anything, re- 
cently settled, sparsely populated districts were 
over-represented in comparison to the larger and 
older towns. Hence, as there was no occcasion for 
an outbreak to force the hand of the ruling element, 
the transition was left to the quiet, but irresistably 
levelling evolution of time. This evolution will be 
considered in its three broad phases : religious, eco- 
nomic, and political or constitutional. 

These years marked a vast change in the religious 
life of the state. The rigorous Puritanism of the 
past lost much of its dogmatic intolerance and re- 
pelling harshness. Irreligion, deism and dissent of 
every brand gained strength among those who re- 
volted from Calvinistic teachings. The religious 
constitution of the state was modified, so that at 
least legal toleration was granted to all honest 
Christians. This was not enough to satisfy the 
demands of the unorthodox, schismatic, and heretic. 
Joining their suffrages at the polls, they won re- 
ligious liberty as a right, not a boon. In their strug- 
gle for this religious freedom which nearly all the 
other states guaranteed, they effected the overthrow 
of Calvinism as an establishment and burst the 
bonds linking Congregationalism to the state. 

Great was the economic awakening of this period 
with its shift in the industrial life of the community. 
Agriculture was giving way to manufacturing. 
Newly established banks were displacing the coun- 
try merchant as a money loaner and broker. Insur- 
ance companies were founded. Money became 



INTRODUCTION 3 

available as wealth rapidly increased. Western emi- 
gration increased to such dangerous proportions 
that to induce men to remain at home, it was found 
necessary to stimulate domestic industry, improve 
agriculture, and build roads. Schools were bet- 
tered; libraries were established; agricultural and 
scientific organizations were incorporated. As pop- 
ulation turned from the country to the cities, a 
laboring class was being developed. Only through 
an understanding of these changes can one interpret 
the long struggle for democracy and reforms, gov- 
ernmental and social. 

The religious and economic changes in the conv 
munity life afford an explanation of the political 
contest. Men called for religious and social equal- 
ity, practical democracy and popular sovereignty. 
Their demands were but the expression of the 
ideas of the American and French revolutions. 
They would emancipate themselves from the rule 
of an aristocratic, clerical class. They were the 
more insistent, for they knew of the freedom of the 
West through reading letters from emigrants and 
from the omnipresent Yankee peddler. For the 
fulfillment of their desires they soon realized the 
need of a reorganization in the structure of the 
government. Hence through an opposition party, 
the Democratic-Republican and later Toleration 
party, they sought the adoption of a constitution, 
with a bill of rights guaranteeing the natural privi- 
leges of republican citizens instead of the royal 
charter. This was done by waging a generation-long 
campaign by which the people were convinced of the 



INTRODUCTION 



justice of the demands and the safety with which 
they could be granted. The result was the blood- 
less Revolution of 1818, which gave the state a 
constitution as democratic as any then in existence. 



CHAPTER I 

i. The Rise of Infidelity to 1801 

rpHIS era, 1775-1818, of the breaking down of 
^ the old religious life of Connecticut was 
marked by the inception and rapid spread of infi- 
delity. Irreligion finally permeated all ranks of 
society. Gaining strength, it took the offensive, 
becoming aggressive in thought and radical in 
politics. Hence, aside from the academic interest 
in the history of liberalism, there is a practical 
one in computing the numerical strength of those 
whom their fellow freemen termed infidels. 

Connecticut Congregationalism was at a low 
ebb in the second half of the eighteenth century. 
Revivals were as rare as great divines. The moral 
rigor of seventeenth-century Puritanism had dis- 
appeared. It is to this fact that the inflow of 
deistic thought must be ascribed. The Great 
Awakening of 1 740 accomplished wonders for a time 
in invigorating the religious life, yet its results from 
the viewpoint of the Standing Order were not en- 
tirely advantageous. It caused the schism of the 
Separates or, as they styled themselves, the strict 
Congregationalists and paved the way for those 
enthusiastic exhorters who were to win over so 
many moribund Congregationalists to the infant 
Baptist and Methodist organizations. A decided 
impetus was given to the Church of England. In 

5 



6 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

a word, while the revival stimulated religious inter- 
ests and instilled a passing vitalizing force into the 
established church, there came in its wake sectari- 
anism and dissent. Excesses to be deprecated 
rather than overlooked aroused skepticism and 
furthered the introduction of infidelity. 

While the French and Indian War was generally 
regarded as the first milestone in the progress of 
infidelity in the staid and steady old common- 
wealth, deism was known in America much earlier. 1 
Men like Dean Berkeley and Samuel Johnson were 
affected by a sort of idealism, at times dangerously 
deistic. Ezra Stiles as student and tutor, having 
read the thirty or so deistic books included in the 
Berkeley donation to the Yale Library, had passed 
through a painful skepticism. 2 Rector Thomas Clap 
was said to have depended largely on Woolaston's 
Religion of Nature for his philosophy. There may 
have been considerable skepticism among the lit- 
erati, in the form of a rational protest against the 
harshness and determinism of Calvinism, though 
this was not true among the people at large, many 
of whom might have been unreligious without being 
irreligious. 

Writing in 1759 relative to the probable effect of 
the war on religion and morals, Stiles noted : 

I imagine the American Morals & Religion were never in 
so much danger as from our concern with the Europeans in 

1 I. Woodbridge Riley, The Founder of Mormonism, p. 151 ; in the same 
author's American Thought from Puritanism to Pragmatism there is a 
discussion of infidelity during this period. 

3 Rev. Abiel Holmes, The Life of Ezra Stiles, pp. 42, 43-63. 



THE RISE GF INFIDELITY TO 1801 7 

the present War. They put on indeed in their public Con- 
duct the Mark of public Virtue — and the Officers endeavor to 
restrain the vices of the private Soldiery while on duty. 
But I take it the Religion of the Army is Infidelity & Grati- 
fication of the appetites .... They propagate in a 
genteel & insensible Manner the most corrupting and de- 
bauching Principles of Behavior. It is doubted by many 
Officers if in fact the Soul survives the Body — but if it does, 
they ridicule the notion of moral accountableness, Rewards 
and Punishments in another life .... I look upon it 
that our Officers are in danger of being corrupted with vicious 
principles, and many of them I doubt not will in the End of 
the War come home minute philosophers initiated in the 
polite Mysteries and vitiated morals of Deism. And this 
will have an unhappy Effect on a sudden to spread Deism or 
at least Skepticism thro' these Colonies. And I make no 
doubt, instead of the Controversies of Orthodoxy and Her- 
esy, we shall soon be called to the defence of the Gospel itself. 
. . . . The Bellamys &c. of New England will stand no 
chance with the corruptions of Deism, which, I take it are 
spreading apace in this Country. 3 

Stiles was right. The British regular from the 
barracks, where loose morals and looser free think- 
ing prevailed, proved a dangerous associate for the 
colonial militiaman. The rank and file were fa- 
miliar with the Anglican Church of the Georges 
and the officers were frequently imbued with the 
prevalent continental philosophy or its echoed 
English rationalism. Their unorthodox thinking 
impressed men, and their philosophy was assidu- 
ously copied as having a foreign style. Thus the 
militiaman on returning from the campaign intro- 
duced his newly acquired habits of thinking and 
of life among the humble people of his town or 

3 Stiles Mss., letter dated Newport, Sept. 24, 1759, quoted in Riley 5 
American Thought, p. 215. 



8 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

wayside hamlet. Judging from the reported change 
in the religious tone of such a town as New Britain, 
no society was too secluded to escape the baneful 
contagion. 4 Thus the infidel philosophy of the old 
world gained a foothold in the new. 

The trying years of the Revolution were critical 
for New England orthodoxy. It was an unsettled 
period filled with demoralizing tendencies. The 
use of intoxicants was well-nigh universal, Sab- 
bath violations were winked at by the authorities ; 
swearing, profanity, and night-walking passed all 
but unnoticed. Depreciated money encouraged 
speculation and avarice. Hard times broke into 
patriotism. Unmoral business ethics was too ap- 
parent, if one may judge from the acts and their 
supplementary re-enactments, to prevent engross- 
ing and exporting goods out of the colony, and to 
establish a minimum wage and a maximum price 
for articles of consumption. 5 Men were becoming 
materialistic. The minister was fast losing his au- 
tocratic sway in the parish. Congregationalism 
was seriously weakened. The Church of England 
was all but destroyed, for as a religious body it was 
discredited as being Tory at heart. Its churches 
were closed and its ministers silenced. Hence one 
is not surprised at the inroads " nothingarianism" 6 
made into the established order. A reader of the 
records finds no difficulty in accounting for Presi- 

4 David N. Camp, History of New Britain, p. 56. 
6 Conn. Col. Records, XV, index; State Records, I, 6,9, 62, 65, 97, 230. 
413, 524, 528. II, 13, 103, 132, 164, 174, 222, 266, 272, 483. 

6 James Dana, Two Discourses, p. 65, made use of this apt term. 



THE RISE OF INFIDELITY TO 1801 9 

dent Dwight's observation that war is fatal to 
morals. 

Dwight wrote a few years later of the revolution- 
ary days as follows : 

At this period Infidelity began to obtain, in this country, 
an extensive currency and reception. As this subject con- 
stitutes far the most interesting and prominent characteristic 
of the past Century, it would not be amiss to exhibit it with 
some degree of minuteness and to trace through several 
particulars the steps of its progress. 7 

The positive responsibility was placed again 
on the intercourse with "corrupted foreigners." 
French free-thinking proved dangerously contagi- 
ous. In the first place, the French brothers-in- 
arms, as America's brave allies, commanded both 
our gratitude and respect. In the second place, 
denying where the English doubted, their thought 
was aggressively destructive rather than apologetic. 
As men of some learning and of an insinuating, 
polished address, they were skillful proselytizers, 
answering arguments with a sneering smile or 
effective shrug. Thus, American officers imbibed 
the ideas of the continental philosophers without 
necessarily intimately knowing at first hand their 
writings. 

Stiles had declared that cries of orthodoxy would 
not suffice, but that Scripture must be explained 
on logical, rational grounds so as to appeal to 
critical minds. In his Election Sermon of 1783, 
driven by fear of deism, he emphasized the depend- 
ence of Luther and Calvin on the Church Fathers 

7 Discourse (1801), p. 19; cf. Travels, IV, 355 ff. 



10 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

and predicted evolutionary changes in the "fash- 
ions in religion." "We despise the fathers and the 
pious and learned divines of the middle ages," he 
wrote. "Pious posterity will do the same by us; 
and twirl over our most favorite authors with the 
same ignorant pity and neglect: happy they, if 
their favorite authors contain the same blessed 
truths. ' ' 8 This was dangerously toleran t. Congre- 
gationalism had to turn away and await a differ- 
ent type of Yale president to defend her from the 
onslaughts of deism and its disciples. 

The religious status of most towns after the 
Revolution was that of Windham, whose historian 
writes : 

Her secular affairs were most flourishing. It was a tran- 
sition period — a day of upheaval, over-turning, uprootal. 
Infidelity and Universalism had come in with the Revolu- 
tion and drawn multitudes from the religious faith of their 
fathers. Free-thinking and free-drinking were alike in 
vogue. Great looseness of manners and morals had re- 
placed the ancient Puritanic strictness .... Now, 
sons of those honored fathers and the great majority of those 
in active life, were sceptics and scoffers, and men were placed 
in office who never entered the House of God except for town 
meetings and secular occasions. 9 

Without doubt, growing irreligion had much to 
do with the prevalence of vice. The increasing in- 
fidelity in weakening the awful grip with which 
the Calvinists' 'hereafter' once held their minds, 
removed the greatest influence enforcing the stern 
old Puritan morality. 

8 Stiles, Sermon, May, 1783, p. 96. 

9 Ellen D. Lamed, History of Windham County, II, 220. 



THE RISE OF INFIDELITY TO 1801 11 

The years of peace wrought little in the way of 
restraining the irreligious propensities. Some 
were constrained to believe that men were more re- 
ligious during the war than in the period immedi- 
ately following, when, with trials removed, they be- 
came even more worldly. 10 It was pointed out 
that "infidelity assumed an air of importance." It 
was half feared that the augury of an American 
philosopher who had predicted some years before 
to David Hume that another century would see 
the extermination of religion in America, was pro- 
phetic. 11 Yet considered retrospectively President 
Stiles's survey of the nation's future religious life 
struck nearer the mark: 

As to nominal Christianity, I have no doubt but that it 
will be upheld for ages in these states. Through the liberty 
enjoyed here, all religious sects will grow up into large and 
respectable bodies. 12 

Yet Stiles feared the headway deism was making 
and took advantage of this Election Sermon to 
trumpet aloud its dangers. His attack was too 
scholarly to be effective outside the cloister. The 
average man could not follow his refutation of 
Hume, Voltaire, Tindal, or Shaftesbury, the last of 
whom he termed the "amiable Confucius of Deism," 
and condemnation of their usual glorification of 
other systems above Christianity. 

Some caution is necessary, as these are contem- 
porary accounts by severe moralists to whom the 

10 Two Brothers, pp. 6 ff.; Samuel Wales, Sermon, May, 1785. 

11 Dwight, Address, July 4, 1798, p. 18. 

12 Stiles, Sermon, May, 1783, pp. 73, 78-86. 



12 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

present is ever likely to appear hopeless and dark, 
and the past alone bright. With the vantage of 
several years perspective the same men may see 
much that was light in the once gloomy vista. 
Such was the case with President D wight, who 
wrote from memory some thirty years later that 
infidelity decreasing after 1783 gave way to the an- 
cient virtues of New England, and became only a 
by- word for immorality while at the same time 
business standards reached a higher plane. 13 To a 
certain extent this may have been true, and the 
desperate conditions which Dwight painted after 
1795 in his contemporary sermons may have been 
due to the baneful influences of the French Revolu- 
tion, which counteracted the work of the reformers. 
Such a theory is not untenable in the light of facts. 
If, however, Dwight was correct in defining the 
beginning of the reform movement, he was mis- 
taken in not stating or, more likely, in not perceiv- 
ing its cause. 

In 1784 Connecticut passed a general toleration 
act which revealed the tolerant spirit seen in the 
Virginia act of the same year and the clauses in the 
new state constitutions. As this act made dissent 
halfway respectable by freeing a dissenter, who 
presented a certificate declaring himself a member 
of some regular society recognized by law, from the 
payment of a Congregational tithe, it no doubt 
served to increase the adherents of non-Congrega- 
tional churches. Still it must also have decreased 
the irreligious propaganda; for the legal dis-estab- 

13 Dwight, Travels, IV, 355-361. 



THE RISE OF INFIDELITY TO 1801 13 

lishment of Congregationalism of the Saybrook 
Platform broke the point of the ' 'infidels' " strongest 
weapon of attack. Men, dissatisfied with the es- 
tablished order, could join one of the dissenting so- 
cieties by complying with the certificate technicality. 
It acted as a safety-valve, for men were less apt 
to give up the church altogether. Furthermore, 
Congregationalism itself was morally strengthened. 
President D wight would never have agreed with 
such reasoning, for a little later he was inveighing 
uncompromisingly against the so-called "modern 
liberality." 14 

Ethan Allen in 1784 printed his Oracles of Reason, 
which President Jared Sparks of Harvard at a later 
time assailed most vigorously and which Dwight of 
Yale noticed as the first formal publication in the 
United States against Christianity. 15 Allen in his 
preface wrote that he was called a deist, though he 
himself did not know what he was, save that he as- 
suredly was not a Calvinist, or hopeful of immunity 
from clerical attack. The book might best be char- 
acterized as an assault on Puritanism and its preach- 
ers. How widely the treatise was circulated, cannot 
be determined, but, judging from Allen's popularity 
in Vermont, his Revolutionary services, his Litch- 
field birth, it is likely that it was read throughout 
New England. Its publication alone would in- 
cline one to doubt that there was the genuine, gen- 

14 Discourse (1801), p. 16; Zephaniah Swift, A System of the Laws of 
the State of Connecticut, I, 145. 

16 Riley, American Thought, pp. 12-17, 56-58; Riley, American 
Philosophy, The Early Schools, pp. 48 ff . ; Proceedings of Vermont Histori- 
cal Society (1902), p. 6. 



14 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

eral aversion to deism which too great dependence 
on D wight or Judge Swift might lead one to believe. 

President Dwight learned that as early as 1786 
there were in America several branches of the II- 
luminati, that professedly higher branch of Free 
Masonry founded (to his regret, later on) by Pro- 
fessor Weishaupt of Ingolstadt. His auditors were 
not informed as to whether Connecticut had a chap- 
ter, but were told that this society propagated doc- 
trines striking at the very root of human happiness, 
virtue, society and government. 16 If its purpose 
was to weaken the hold of religion on men, the time 
was propitious. 

The years before the French Revolution and the 
establishment of a strong national government were 
lean, unstable years, when change was in the air. 
The critical period was one of discontent, a search- 
ing after a panacea. Is it surprising if many saw 
in deism a hope; in the church, a tyranny; and in 
the clergyman, an enemy? Hard times, commer- 
cial depression, slack shipping, depreciated cur- 
rency, national, state and private debts in great 
volume, speculation, avaricious longing for wealth, 
inter-state land disputes caused general dissatisfac- 
tion. Then came the party or class struggle for 
and against a strong centralized government, with 
the people of property, social standing and ortho- 
dox religion on one side and the debtor and man of 
doubtful or no religion on the other. Once the 
national constitution was adopted, one would expect 
that religious discontent would cease, as did politi- 
cal and economic dissatisfaction. An adjustment 

16 Dwight, Address, July 4, 1798, pp. 13-14. 



THE RISE OF INFIDELITY TO 1801 15 

of religious differences in broader toleration, if not 
a turning from philosophic thought to the more 
practical concerns of every-day life, might have re- 
sulted if the French Revolution had not broken forth. 
The importance of the French Revolution on the 
religious thought of Connecticut can hardly be over- 
estimated, yet it must not be held responsible for all 
the ungodliness of those years of Connecticut's 
darkness. As we have seen, the roots of irreligion 
and moral shortcomings went far behind the days of 
the French Revolution. That Revolution merely 
gave a powerful stimulus to deism and to all that 
was generally connoted by the term " Jacobinism." 
On the other hand it aroused the clergy to a united 
opposition to the enemies of religion. As evidence 
that the French Revolution was not the cause of 
the religious decline, consider the fiftieth anniver- 
sary sermon of Rev. Mr. White of Windham, deliv- 
ered in 1790, before the effects of the Revolution 
could possibly have been felt: 

In those days there were scarce any that were not profes- 
sors of religion, and but few infants not baptized. No 
families that were prayerless. Profane swearing was but 
little known, and open violations of the Sabbath not prac- 
ticed as is common now. And there were no Deists among 
us. The people as a body were fearers of the Lord and 
observers of the Sabbath and its duties. But the pres- 
ent day is peculiar, for men's throwing off the fear of the 
Lord. Declensions in religion have been increasing for 
about thirty years past, such as profaneness, disregard of the 
Sabbath, neglect of family religion, unrighteousness, intem- 
perance, imbibing of modern errors and heresies and the 
crying prevalence of infidelity against the clearest light. 17 

17 Quoted in Rev. Elijah Waterman, Sermon, Dec. 10, 1800, p. 33, 
and in Lamed, Windham County, II, 221. 



16 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Jesse Lee, the pioneer Methodist exhorter, on his 
tour of 1789 found religion at a low ebb, though his 
testimony must be closely scrutinized. However, 
he seems to be borne out by other witnesses to 
whom the same declension of morals and religion 
was plainly, if painfully, visible. 18 This condition 
was not confined to particular sections of the state, 
for, if it had been, these early Methodist and Bap- 
tist itinerant evangelists would not have been so 
generally successful. Such was the religious life of 
Connecticut when the French Constituent Assem- 
bly was drafting the Constitution of the Clergy. 

The French Revolution in its early years was as 
generally approved in Connecticut as elsewhere in 
America. 19 The attack on the church was ap- 
plauded in a short-sighted, if not bigoted, manner, 
as the fulfillment of their long-predicted overthrow 
of Anti-Christ, of Babylon. 20 For the sake of con- 
sistency, it would have been well if the Congrega- 
tional ministers had realized that Jacobinism was 
essentially an attack on Christianity. This would 
have relieved them in ensuing years from the biting 
ridicule of bitter democratic pens when they fav- 
ored the coalition to such an extent that they could 

18 Nathan Bangs, History of the Methodist-Episcopal Church, I, 288- 
290; Bishop Francis Asbury, Journal, II, 102; Sketch of R. M. Sherman, 
pp. 20-22. 

19 Ezra Stiles, Diary, III, 391, 432, 467; Noah Webster, Ten Letters; 
The Revolution in France; James Gould, July 4th Address (1798), 
pp. 21 £E.; James Dana, Two Discourses, pp. 54 ff.; Dwight, Travels, IV, 
371-375; Charles D. Hazen, Contemporary American Opinion of the French 
Revolution. 

20 Anson Ely Morse, The Federalist Party in Massachusetts to the 
Year 1800, pp. 88 ff. 



THE RISE OF INFIDELITY TO 1801 17 

rejoice in the Concordat and even in the ultimate 
re-establishment of the Bourbons and the church. 
This complete turn of sympathy on the part of 
the ministry and in general of the upper social class 
can be accounted for by England's declaration that 
bhe stood as the bulwark of religion as well as by the 
unbridled excesses of the revolutionists. America 
could not condone the execution of Louis XVI and 
Marie Antoinette, the worship of the Supreme Be- 
ing, the full Terror, and the blood of Toulon and 
La Vendee. Then the fear aroused by the close 
association of Jacobinism with the Revolutionary 
Societies of England and with the beginnings of the 
Republican movement at home brought many to 
the other extreme of not being able to see any good 
in the whole convulsion. 

At length the Connecticut ministry concluded 
that Jacobinism was not only anti-clerical, but 
positively anti-Christian. Dwight stood foremost 
among his brethren when, in 1798, he pointed out 
that the persecution to which the Catholic church 
was subjected, was contrary to his desires. How- 
ever, he carefully explained that he was no friend 
to its system. 21 In 1801 he set forth his opinion — 
somewhat dictatorially — in answer to certain ex- 
cuses for French infidelity, as follows: 

It is true, that the persecution of modern Infidels has 
fallen principally on Catholics, and not on Protestants, and 

21 Address, July 4, 1798, p. 9; Rev. Nathan Strong exhibited the 
same views in his Thanksgiving Sermons of 1798 and 1800. Strong's 
toleration was evidenced in his invitation to Abb6 Matignon to use his 
pulpit when on a visit to Hartford in 1813. Catholic Historical Review, 
I, 151. 



18 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

it is equally true, that they have not persecuted them at all as 
Catholics, but merely as Christians. They themselves have 
often told us their real design. They have ridiculed, denied, 
and decried Religion as such; and not as the Catholic system; 
and have fought and butchered the Catholic soldiers, and 
the people, as the Armies and adherents of Jesus, by name. 
. . . . The religion, the piety of these men constituted 
the crime, for which they died; not the character of Catholics. 
Accordingly the persecution has fallen indiscriminately on 
Protestants as well as Catholics; not so often; because there 
were not so many of them; but never the less, because they 
were Protestants. This distinction was invented here, and 
by us; and was not so much as thought of by themselves. 22 

Furthermore, D wight painfully maintained that 
he was equally unfriendly to Rome and such infi- 
dels as refused to differentiate between true and 
false religion, while he admitted, on the other hand, 
that there were pious Catholics. In thinking other- 
wise he felt that one would be guilty of the bigotry 
with which they are charged. What wonder is it, 
then, that the Republican of 1801 ridiculed the 
political inconsistency of the federalist ministry? 23 

During the closing years of the century Dwight 
assumed undoubted leadership. His study of the 
deistic movement and literature was more thorough 
than that of any Connecticut man since President 
Stiles. As scholarly as Stiles, he was a more ag- 
gressive character, a stouter debater as well as a 
more popular preacher. He was a born leader. 
His orthodoxy was unquestioned. As Yale's head, 
he was the chief of the clerical faction which was 

22 Discourse (1801), pp. 54-56; cf. Dwight, Travels, IV, 367. 

23 Constitutional Telegraph quoted in American Mercury, June 12, 
19, 1800; April 22, July 8, 1802. 



THE RISE OF INFIDELITY TO 1801 19 

fast forming in answer to Jacobinical attacks on 
the clergy and their interests. His sermons dem- 
onstrated not only that he knew his subject, but 
that he had closely studied the writings of Lord 
Herbert of Cherbury, of Hobbes, Shaftesbury, 
Hume, Bolingbroke, Gibbon, d'Alembert, Vol- 
taire, Rousseau and a host of minor philosophers, 
as well as the leading English works refuting them. 
He was able to trace the rise of the Illuminati. 
He had even looked into the " loose moral princi- 
ples" of Kant and other German writers. The 
immature thinker of 1788 who had written the 
Triumph of Infidelity, 24 was now ready to lead and 
able to convince men of his inherent right of leader- 
ship in the crusade against irreligion. 

The Congregational clergy, seeing the necessity 
of concerted action, were thankful to have a D wight 
for their leader. Scarcely one failed to take his 
place in the line of battle in defense of church and 
state. That they might wage a more effective 
campaign, was their chief plea for a general entrance 
into politics. In so doing, they made themselves 
the mark for virulent Republican attacks, with the 
result that Republicanism represented to them all 
that was blackest in Jacobinism. Between the two, 
they would not differentiate. The increasingly 
numerous sectarians also strove against infidelity 
by preaching and revivals, with rather more suc- 
cess, for they did not assail Republicanism as part 
of the deistic movement. Methodist and Baptist 
exhorters even as Republicans contended against 

* Stiles, Diary, III, 326. 



20 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

irreligion. As the excesses of the French Revolution 
had cured of their revolutionary ardor all but the 
violent partisans, Republicans themselves realized 
that the popular association of deism, infidelity and 
Republicanism would endanger their cause. This 
concerted action on the part of the settled ministry, 
supplemented by the telling labors of churchmen 
and despised sectarians, preserved religion in Con- 
necticut 25 during this period of crisis. 

French books of philosophy were coming rapidly 
into vogue with translations and popularized pam- 
phlet abridgments. 26 The Age of Reason by 
Thomas Paine was read with avidity and by all 
classes, as editions were cheap and frequently dis- 
tributed gratis. Rev. William Bentley noted that 
Paine was universally read in Connecticut, and as- 
sumed importance, because of the diatribes or 
eulogies heaped upon him by the respective parties. 27 
He might be labeled a genius without morals, a 
"strolling preacher of Jacobinism;" but men had not 
forgotten that, like Ethan Allen, he deserved well 
of America and evil of England. Moreover, he 
reached the masses by popularizing the philoso- 
phers whose thoughts were too obscured in their 
rhetoric and diction to be comprehended by the un- 
educated. In this way the simple-minded frontiers- 

25 Cf . M. Louise Greene, The Development of Religious Liberty in Con- 
necticut, pp. 410-412. 

26 Dwight, Travels, IV, 368; Dana, Two Discourses, p. 33; Abraham 
Bishop, Oration (1801), pp. 87-88; Dwight, Discourse (1801), p. 50; 
Rev. Moses Welsh, Sermon (1807), p. 17; Riley, American Thought, 
pp. 87, 162, 305; Bangs, Methodist Church, II, 21. 

27 Diary, III, 42. 



THE RISE OF INFIDELITY TO 1801 21 

man was often contaminated before the evangelistic 
exhorter arrived. While Paine's influence was 
greater outside of New England and especially Con- 
necticut than within, it may be considered a chief 
factor in the rise of infidelity in the commonwealth. 28 

Another influential emigrant was the deist, Dr. 
Joseph Priestley, discoverer of oxygen and member 
of the constitutional reform societies of England 
who sought a haven in America from the Birming- 
ham mob who burned his laboratory and library. 
As a naturalized citizen and a Republican he came 
to have considerable influence. He was frequently 
quoted by Republican editors. The American 
Mercury of Hartford made his name so familiar 
that the church-goers sometimes dubbed the unre- 
ligious as "Priestleians." 29 His Corruptions of 
Christianity influenced Jefferson who in 1803 wrote 
a moderately deistic Syllabus of an Estimate of the 
Doctrines of Jesus, compared with those of others. 30 

Abraham Bishop, a prominent local Republican, 
while denying charges of being an atheist himself 
and declaring his doubts as to the likelihood of 
there being an atheist in all America, bitterly at- 
tacked the clergy and advised them to steer clear 
of politics and stop teaching the people to label 
men infidels. He further suggested that they refrain 
from calling to mind Bolingbroke, Hume and Vol- 
taire, who could not be refuted by being called 

28 Morse, Federalist Party, pp. 217 fif.; Swift, System of Laws, II, 323. 

29 Stiles, Diary, III, 525; Dana, Two Discourses, p. 65; Rev. William 
W. Andrews, The Correspondence of John Cotton Smith, p. 67. 

30 Riley, American Thought, pp. 77 ff. 



22 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

fools. If Bishop's addresses encouraged infidelity, 
they served the further purpose of unsettling the 
church members and spurring them to action. The 
versatile Joel Barlow, poet, scholar, diplomat, cos- 
mopolitan, and deist, likewise must have drawn the 
attention of his fellow-citizens toward France and 
her literature. At any rate, the French philoso- 
phers were widely read. Their high abstractions 
and their beguiling style made them more popular 
and hence difficult to combat. The clergy found 
an advantage in associating infidelity with immor- 
ality and faction, thereby demonstrating the danger 
to state as well as church. 

2. The Religious Life of Yale College 

To appreciate the labors of President Dwight and 
the widespread influence of deistic thought, one 
must consider the religious life of Yale College dur- 
ing this era. By noting the hold of infidelity on 
both faculty and students, a better idea is obtained 
of the diffusion of irreligious philosophy throughout 
the state. As the center of learning, with a divinity 
school where practically all of the Congregational 
clergy were trained, the position of Yale was one 
of obvious importance. 31 If its students could be 
impressed with orthodox Calvinism as well as 
with conservatism in politics, the "Old Order" 
would remain supreme throughout the state ; for the 
influence of Yale men in the pulpit, at the bar, in 

31 Stiles calculated in 1774 that of the 158 Congregational ministers 
in the state 131 were Yale men. Diary, II, 415. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE OF YALE COLLEGE 23 

medicine and in civil office cannot easily be over- 
estimated. On the other hand, if unorthodox think- 
ing and political liberalism were to saturate the 
student body, a new regime in the life of the com- 
monwealth would soon follow. There was, then, a 
political struggle to gain the College, against which 
the reform or opposition party were quick to level 
their shafts, In part the reformers were successful 
in forcing a compromise by which the Legislature 
granted $40,000 to the College only in consideration 
that the governor and lieutenant governor and six 
assistants be admitted to the governing board. 32 

Liberalism in Yale might be traced back even as 
far as 1722 when Rector Cutler and Samuel Johnson 
left the Congregational fold to identify themselves 
with the infant Anglican organization. While this 
was an interesting revolt against the severe Cal- 
vinism of the College which had been founded be- 
cause of Harvard's weakening orthodoxy, a liberal 
spirit was hardly evident until the time of the Great 
Awakening. 

Then Whitfield reported that, while he found 
little religion in Yale, there was considerable inter- 
est in his teaching. In 1745 Yale followed Har- 
vard by formally denouncing Whitfield, and pre- 
venting the students from hearing his sermons. As 

82 May, 1792; William L. Kingsley, Yale College, A Sketch of its His- 
tory, I, 108-109; Stiles, Diary, III, 8; Franklin B. Dexter, Biographical 
Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College, I, 1. Material of value is to be 
found in two pamphlets by Dr. Benjamin Gale, A Calm and Full Vindi- 
cation and A Reply to a Pamphlet; a Letter to a Member of the House, by 
John Graham, and a Letter to An Honourable Gentleman of the Council- 
Board by Benjamin Trumbull. 



24 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

the First Church of New Haven, then the com- 
mon meeting-place of the students and townsmen, 
was closed to him, he was compelled to speak on the 
Green. Yet his teaching influenced the student 
body, for a few became Separates despite the dis- 
ciplinary attempts of President Clap, an extreme 
anti-revivalist. 33 Illustrative of this inquisitorial 
policy, an attempt had been made in 1743 to 
suppress a reprint of Locke's Letters on Toleration 
which the senior class had printed at their own ex- 
pense. 34 In answer to a petition of certain parents 
that their sons be allowed to attend an outside 
church, if necessary under proctors, President Clap 
pointed out that it was impracticable, for proctors 
could not be relied upon, as only the governors of 
the College could supervise and enforce discipline. 
To clinch his argument, he asked if the college au- 
thorities could be expected to punish students for 
their failure to attend a Jewish synagogue, if there 
were one in the vicinity, or an Arian church, when 
they considered such service worse than none. 
To avoid this difficulty and increase religious fervor, 
the college church was established in 1756. 35 

President Clap did his best to stay the inflow of 
deistic thought by guarding against the entrance of 

33 Dexter, Biographical Sketches, I, 771. II, 29, 149. Williston Walker, 
Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism, p. 497; H. B. Wright et al., 
Two Centuries of Christian Activity in Yale, pp. 19 ff.; Kinglsey, Yale 
College, I, 77 ff.; George P. Fisher, Church of Christ in Yale, pp. 
54 ff. 

34 Greene, Religions Liberty, pp. 260 ff. 

35 Thomas Clap, The Religious Constitution of Colleges, pp. 12 ff.; Dex- 
ter, Biographical Sketches, II, 354. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE OF YALE COLLEGE 25 

heretical books into the library. This seems 
strange in view of the Berkeley donation which the 
president had himself once catalogued. However, 
he refused a library from a Newport merchant in 
schismatic Rhode Island, though Ezra Stiles remon- 
strated with him: 

It is true with this Liberty Error may be introduced; but 
turn the Tables, the propagation of Truth may be extin- 
guished. Deism has got such Head in the Age of Licentious 
Liberty, that it would be in vain to try to stop it by hiding 
the Deistical Writings: and the only Way left to conquer 
and demolish it, is to come forth into the Field and Dispute 
this matter on even Footing — the Evidences of Revelation 
in my opinion are nearly as demonstrative as Newton's Prin- 
cipia, and these are the Weapons to be used. Deism propa- 
gates itself in America very fast, and on this Found, strange as 
it may seem, is the Chh. of Engld built up in polite life. A 
man may be an excellent chhman and yet a profound Deist. 
While public popular Delusion is kept up by Deistical Priests, 
sensible Laymen despise the whole, and yet, strange Contra- 
diction joyn it and entice others to joyn it also, .... 
and they say all priests are alike, we all try to deceive Man- 
kind, there is no Trust to be put in us. Truth and this alone 
being our Aim in fact, open, frank, and generous we shall 
avoid the very appearance of Evil. 36 

Stiles, as has been noticed, could cite his own 
religious experiences in proof of the efficiency of 
open, rational refutation. 

As the succeeding president, Stiles followed this 
plan. He met with failure, the religious life of 
the College becoming worse and worse; for he 
seems to have been too much the scholar success- 

36 Stiles Mss., letter, Aug. 6, 1779, quoted in Riley, American Phi- 
losophy, p. 216; Holmes, Stiles, p. 79. 



26 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

fully to reach the student body. 37 Some of the 
subjects for the senior debates, noted in his Diary, 
suggest the thought of the College and the method 
of refutation. Quite a list of these could be com- 
piled, but a very few will serve our purpose: 
"Whether the Immortality of the Soul can be 
proved by reason," "Whether the historical parts 
of the Bible are of Divine Inspiration," "Whether 
there be anything contradictory to Reason in 
Scripture," "Whether an unconverted man ought 
to enter into the ministry," "Whether religion has 
on the whole been of a benefit to mankind." Other 
debates dealt with the granting of civil rights to 
Catholics, to deists in religion and to libertines in 
morals. 38 Now the mere fact that these subjects 
were considered debatable is enough to show an 
interest in toleration for all men. Furthermore, 
they suggest that in some minds deism had reached 
the point of a menace to the state. 

On Dwight's accession to the presidency in 1795, 
infidelity was rife, in spite of its rigorous punish- 
ment. Denial of the Scriptures and propagation 
of heresy were listed before blasphemy, robbery, 
fornication, theft, forgery and duelling. 39 While 
the fear of expulsion must have prevented too 
open a display of heresy, yet Lyman Beecher, writ- 
ing of his undergraduate days, emphasized above 

37 Wright, Two Centuries, pp. 45 ff.; Stiles, Diary, III, 30, 439, 504; 
Anson P. Stokes, Memorials of Eminent Yale Men, I, 53. Conditions 
at King's College and Harvard were no better. William E. Channing, 
Memoirs, I, 70. 

38 Stiles, Diary, II, 512. Ill, 76, 123, 149, 167, '257, 267, 359. 

39 Statutes of Yale College, 1795, 1808. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE OF YALE COLLEGE 27 

all else the prevalence of infidelity and the bravado 
with which students used such names as Voltaire 
and Rousseau. 40 Nor were the faculty all religious 
men, even if they did not parade unorthodox 
views. Exemplary Tutor Silliman was regarded as 
a deist, not professing Christianity until a revival in 
1803 which Dr. Dwight's vigorous sermons and 
crusading zeal had inspired. Roger M. Sherman, 
shaken by Hume, was another who later waxed 
enthusiastic on reading Edwards and hearing 
Dwight. Uniting with the college church, he lived 
ever afterward a Calvinist of the Edwardian type 
and became a pillar of the Norwalk society. 41 
Joel Barlow, a former army chaplain and candidate 
for the ministry, whose beliefs were a matter of no 
doubt, described the unreasoning attitude of the 
authorities when, on meeting Silliman in London 
shortly after Austerlitz, he expressed his satisfac- 
tion on learning that chemistry had been added to 
the curriculum, declaring that: 

He would have sent out a chemical apparatus and prepa- 
rations had he not supposed that, coming from him, the 
college authorities would make a bonfire of them in the college 
yard. 42 

Dwight waged an aggressive campaign against in- 
fidelity. 43 In his sermons he recounted the danger 

40 Autobiography, I, 43. 

41 George P. Fisher, Life of Benjamin Silliman, I, 49, 52, 84-86; 
Sketch of Sherman, pp. 6, 17; Dexter, Biographical Sketches, V, 41-45. 

42 Fisher, Silliman, I, 22, 150. Cf. Dexter, Biographical Sketches, 
IV, 4; Sixth of August Festival, p. 8. 

43 Fisher, Church of Christ, p. 25; Benjamin Silliman, Eulogium, p. 
19; Wright, Two Centuries, p. 53; Dwight, Decisions of Questions, pp. 
Ill ff.; Beecher, Autobiography, I, 43; Stokes, Memorials, I, 214-227. 



28 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

to church, state, and morals, of the popular philoso- 
phy, and in debate he encouraged free and open 
discussion of religious doubts and perplexities, 
thereby gaining an opportunity to refute points 
raised by doubters. It was the same method that 
Dr. Joseph Bellamy had pursued with his divinity 
students. Prospective purchasers of his library had 
been astounded on finding that most of his books 
were of an irreligious character, until they learned 
that he purchased and critically read them in 
order to controvert their tenets. 44 

The efforts of president and faculty were telling. 
As early as 1797 the students organized a Moral 
Society to curtail swearing and gaming, and to 
stimulate religion by earnest debate. The univer- 
sal descent of man from Adam, necessity of divine 
revelation, nature of miracles, truth of Scripture 
proved frequent subjects for discussion. 

Yet the democratic year 1 800-1 801 has been 
generally considered the low mark, almost the 
dead line, of Yale's Christianity. However this 
may be, it was immediately followed by a revival, 
with Yale and New Haven heading a religious 
movement destined to sweep Connecticut and the 
greater part of New England. 45 With great satis- 
faction Dwight witnessed the formal conversion of 

44 Greene, Religious Liberty, pp. 410-412; Dexter, Biographical 
Sketches, I, 523-529; Arthur Goodenough, The Clergy of Litchfield 
County, p. 26. 

46 Goodrich, "Revivals of Religion in Yale College" in Quarterly 
Review, February, 1838; F. H. Foster, A Genetic History of New England 
Theology, p. 279; Fisher, Church of Christ, pp. 33 fL, appendix, p. 82; 
Wright, Two Centuries, pp. 5.5 ff. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE OF YALE COLLEGE 29 

eighty men out of the total enrollment of one hun- 
dred and sixty students. Silliman wrote to his 
mother: 

Yale College is a little temple, prayer and praise seem to 
be the delight of the greater part of the students, while 
those who are still unfeeling are awed into respectful silence. 46 

The Linonian and Brothers debating clubs were 
transformed into centers of religious exhortation 
and prayer. It was even said that the graduating 
class, on separating, signed an agreement to pray 
for one another on a certain hour of the day. Even 
the unfriendly Bishop Asbury testified to a spirit of 
religious enquiry among the students who, he 
said, came "like other very genteel people" to 
mock and deride, but were in the end affected. 47 
Henceforth there was no danger of a pagan Yale, 
though Congregationalism within Yale, as through- 
out the state, remained militant during Dwight's 
whole administration, with revivals in 1808, 18 13, 
and 181 5. In 18 18, shortly after the election of 
President Day, John M. Duncan of Glasgow, a 
shrewd observer and Presbyterian of no uncertain 
hue, found flourishing Moral, Missionary and 
Bible Societies, and heard a professor hammering 
away at Hume. 48 

In stamping out irreligion, a partial critic would 
incline to the view that President Dwight inciden- 

46 Fisher, Silliman, p. 83; ibid,, p. 33, for corroborative testimony 
by Dr. Noah Porter. Cf. Payne H. Kilbourne, Sketches and Chronicles 
of Litchfield, pp. 144-145. 

47 Journal, III, 66. 

48 Travels, I, 120, 148. 



30 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

tally propagated the federalist system of politics, 
which was only natural with federalism the politics 
of the godly, and of the Standing Order in church 
and state; and he was its clerical prophet. To a 
rigid Congregationalist, a Democrat and a deist 
were inseparable. Republicans were inclined to be 
less charitable, charging Yale with being a "labora- 
tory of church and state," a " Presbyterian manu- 
factory," and an engine capable of much good, yet 
busied in teaching boys that liberty is license, and 
toleration is deism. "Pope" Dwight, as the presi- 
dent was universally known by the Republicans, 
was arraigned not, as Federalists declared, because 
he preached Christianity, but because, an ardent 
partisan, he preached politics. 49 Dwight's mission 
in the College had been a success. Its seeds bore 
greater fruit, his influence extending beyond the 
academic walks to the most distant confines of the 
state. The year 1801 marked a turning-point in 
the religious tone of the community. 

3. The Religious Revival after 1801 

The year 1801 witnessed the beginning of Jeffer- 
son's administration, which soon dispelled the 
worst forebodings of the orthodox Federalist party 
of Connecticut. Meeting houses still stood, the 
Bible was secure, and religion was no worse off, 
even though an "atheist" sat in the presidential 

49 Republican address, Mercury, Apr. 2, 1816; Abraham Bishop, 
Proofs of a Conspiracy, p. 48; Fisher, Silliman, I, 95. From a few com- 
municants he brought the number up to 200 out of an enrollment of 
283. Catalogue for 1817 \ Silliman, Eulogium, p. 19. 



RELIGIOUS REVIVAL AFTER 1801 31 

chair. Republicanism in office became so cau- 
tiously conservative that one wonders if the genu- 
ine "Jacobin" was not somewhat disappointed. 
While the clergy decried Republicanism to the end, 
it was not with their former violence or success, for 
no one could longer be deluded with the idea that 
Republicanism and evil were synonymous, es- 
pecially as God-fearing Methodists and Baptists 
were entering the Republican party. They then 
proceeded to attack irreligion and its associated 
sins directly rather than by belaboring the Repub- 
lican party. In this they were more successful, 
for the dissenters generally worked harmoniously 
toward the same end. 

One must qualify this harmony of action, for in 
the strife for converts Baptists and Methodists not 
infrequently attacked the Standing Order on the 
grounds that as an undemocratic state church, sup- 
ported by the forced contributions of the poor, it 
gave rise to scandal leading to infidelity. 50 The set- 
tled ministers cringed, but retaliated. Accordingly, 
while sectarian strife was never cast aside, all par- 
ties realized that their most dangerous foes were 
infidelity and irreligion. 

The period after 1801 witnessed a gradual rise in 
the religious and moral life of the state. It was 
then thoroughly appreciated that the two could 
never be separated, and that irreligion and lack of 
morality were concomitant. 51 With this axiom in 

50 John Leland, Sermon (1801); Stanley Griswold, Oration, Sept. 13, 
1803. 

61 Article on "Public Worship," Courant, Jan. 17, 1810; Beecher, 



32 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

mind men set to work to establish religious socie- 
ties, to encourage revivals and to preach vigorously. 
The foe became less open in its attack, for infidel- 
ity was becoming dishonorable and hence less bold. 
Deistic literature still flowed in the old channels, 
but not unchallenged. Joel Barlow's sudden death 
in 1 8 12 eliminated the leading native exponent of 
French philosophy; and poor Tom Paine had died 
in 1809 in disgrace and poverty with only a 
few humble friends to follow his corpse to the 
grave. Paine's end afforded comment for Federalist 
newspaper paragraphs and texts for many a Sunday 
sermon. With Paine passed away his already 
dwindling influence. 

During these years there were established four 
societies which were destined to accomplish much in 
the coming revival. The Connecticut Bible So- 
ciety, among whose directors were the leaders of 
the clergy and of the Federalist party, sent Bibles 
to the western emigrants and frontiersmen. 52 The 
Connecticut Society for the Promotion of Good 
Morals furthered the preaching of "moral" sermons 
(enforced where possible by the regulatory laws) and 
campaigned against intemperance. 53 The Domes- 
tic Missionary Society for Connecticut and Vicin- 
ity was chartered in 18 16 for the avowed purpose of 

Sermon (1804), p. 17; Rev. Azel Backups, Sermon (1797), p. 9; Rev. 
Elijah Waterman, Sermon (1800), p. 36; Dwight, Sermon (1797), p. 
18; Dana, Two Discourses, p. 54; Swift, System of the Laws, II, 323. 

^Courant, May 15, 1811, and annual issues thereafter; Green's 
Almanack and Register also gives the list of directors for the different 
years. 

" Courant, May 28, 1816. 



RELIGIOUS REVIVAL AFTER 1801 33 

building up the waste places. 54 The New England 
Tract Society established a branch about the same 
time. In accordance with this same charitable in- 
terest in their fellowmen there was founded a Deaf 
and Dumb School in Hartford, the first of its kind 
in the United States. 55 In all these endeavors 
Federalist leaders were closely associated with the 
prominent ecclesiastics. The names of Governor 
John Cotton Smith, Governor John Treadwell, 
Henry Hudson, General Jedidiah Huntington, 
Samuel Pitkin, Daniel Wadsworth, Tapping Reeve, 
Roger Sherman, and many others of the same class 
and sympathies recur on their lists of trustees. 
This resulted in strong support for the clergy by 
throwing the political, social, financial and bureau- 
cratic forces on the side of the church. Needless to 
say the alinement was unkindly criticized. 

Revivals were encouraged, the Congregational 
clergy cautiously following the lead of the Baptist 
and Methodist enthusiasts, 56 with the result that 
there was a series of revivals, beginning with the 
year 1801. While chiefly of a local character, those 
of 1808 and 1 8 13 were of state-wide importance. 

u Courant, July 2, 1816. Hon. John Treadwell published under 
their auspices A Summary of Christian Doctrine and Practice, designed 
especially for the use of the people in the New Settlements (Hartford, 1804). 

86 Courant, Oct. 22, Dec. 24, 1816, Mar. 25, May 20, 1817; The Port- 
folio, III, 85, 122. Laurent Clerc, an instructor who had been trained 
under Abbe Sicard, described the institution, North American Review, 
VII, 127-136. Material can be found in the sketch of Thomas H. Gal- 
laudet, in Henry Barnard, Memoirs of Teachers, Educators, etc., pp. 97-1 19. 

66 It is impossible to give full credit to the itinerant preachers, for 
their sermons rarely found their way into print. On the other hand, 
the printed sermons of Congregational ministers are legion. 



34 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Besides, there was the preaching of solemn, sober 
and sound sermons by prominent divines. These 
sermons fall into five classes: apologetic sermons, 
direct onslaughts on infidelity, negative up-building 
of sectarian orthodoxy by attacks on Rome, ser- 
mons corrective of morals and sermons of the old 
Calvinist type, long, orthodox and somber. Rev. 
Abijah Wines discoursed on Human Depravity, 
Rev. Ralph Emerson exhorted ministers to beware 
of social life, to make everything secondary to the 
pulpit and to teach, not worldly affairs but the 
Gospel's lessons. 57 Rev. Asahel Hooker's sermon 
on the Use and Importance of Preaching the Distin- 
guishing Doctrines of the Gospel is typical of the 
last group. Among the apologetical preachers and 
writers Dwight stood out foremost, with such dis- 
courses as The Dignity and Excellence of the Gospel, 
The Genuineness and Authenticity of the New Testa- 
ment, A Dissertation on the History, Eloquence, and 
Poetry of the Bible, and The True Means of Establish- 
ing Public Happiness. Lyman Beecher preached his 
well-known sermon, The Government of God Desir- 
able. Rev. James Dana of Center Church, New 
Haven, preached on Christianity the Wisdom of 
God, and There is no reason to be ashamed of the 
Gospel. Rev. Ebenezer Marsh delivered an ora- 
tion on the Truth of the Mosaic History of the Crea- 
tion. The lexicographer, Noah Webster, wrote 
eruditely on The Peculiar Doctrines of the Gospel 
Explained and Defended. Bishop John Henry 
Hobart of New York preached in Trinity Episcopal 

87 Sermon, May, 1816. 



RELIGIOUS REVIVAL AFTER 1801 35 

Church, New Haven, on The Moral and Positive 
Benefits of the Ordinances of the Gospel. This list 
might be indefinitely extended, so voluminous 
was the apologetic literature. Such sermons, one 
should bear in mind, are indicative of religion on 
the defensive. Ministers were forced to appeal to 
reason, not fear, as in the past. It is unnecessary 
to enumerate sermons illustrative of the primitive 
Puritan's hatred of Rome, though even an 
occasional address by men of the type of Timothy 
Dwight and Nathan Strong might be cited. 58 

Under Dwight's leadership the foremost preach- 
ers expatiated on the dangerous fallacy of disbe- 
lief. Rev. James Dana preached: The Folly of 
Practical Atheism, and The Character of Scoffers; 
Rev. John Griswold, The Triumph of the Wicked 
and the Reign of Infidelity, and Rev. Noah Porter, 
Deism in America. While Rev. William Ellery 
Channing's sermons on Infidelity were delivered in 
Boston, they were printed and widely circulated 
in Connecticut. Azel and Charles Backus both 
preached in like tenor. Others of less prominence 
aided. They met with such successs that Chan- 
ning could confidently declare in 1813 that irre- 
ligion was on the decline. 59 

Among the most noteworthy sermons were those 
delivered under the auspices of the Moral Society. 
Rev. Lyman Beecher probably achieved the largest 
distinction. In a sermon delivered in 1803, The 

68 Dwight, in a mildly patriotic Sermon, July 23, 1812; Strong, Ser- 
mon, July 23, 1812. 

59 Two Sermons, Oct. 24, 1813, p. 7. 



36 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Practicability of Suppressing Vice, by Means of 
Societies instituted for that Purpose, he described 
organizations in England and in parts of Massachu- 
setts, Maryland and Pennsylvania, and enlarged 
upon the need of improvement in Connecticut, giv- 
ing the following gloomy, but rather overdrawn 
sketch : 

The vices which have destroyed other nations are alarm- 
ingly prevalent in our own. From a variety of causes, irre- 
ligion hath become in all parts of our land, alarmingly 
prevalent. The name of God is blasphemed; the bible is 
denounced; the sabbath is profaned; the worship of God is 
neglected; intemperance hath destroyed its thousands, and 
is preparing the destruction of its thousands more; while 
luxury, with its diversified evils, with a rapidity unparalleled, 
is spreading in every direction, and through every class. 10 

This was supplemented by his discourse on The 
Government of God Desirable, his best known ser- 
mon, A Reformation of Morals Practicable and In- 
dispensable, and another of constructive rather than 
destructive criticism, The Building of Waste Places, 
which led to the establishment of the Domestic 
Missionary Society. In every one of them he pre- 
sented too dark an outlook, emphasizing the dan- 
gers of irreligion, Sabbath-breaking, intemperance, 
and other moral shortcomings. His point of view 
was necessary to arouse a new conscience. 

Rev. Noah Porter hewed along the same path, 
beseeching a return to Sabbath observance and to 
the morality, industry, sobriety and peace of the 
past. His sermon, Perjury Prevalent and Danger- 
ous, must have shocked his auditors. Primarily 

80 Beecher, Sermon (1804), p. 19. 



RELIGIOUS REVIVAL AFTER 1801 37 

its purpose was to demonstrate the inefficiency of 
the oaths of atheists, deists, and universalists ; it 
indicated that there was among some people an 
easy attitude toward oath-taking. Rev. Dr. Philip 
Doddridge printed an old-fashioned dissertation, a 
Plain and Serious Address to the Master of a Family 
on the Important Subject of Family Religion. Rev. 
James Beach was heard on the Immoral and Per- 
nicious Tendency of Error, in which he decried 
those who countenanced the most invidious at- 
tacks upon religion and morality in the way of 
Sabbath violations. 

Some pastors thundered against the all too prev- 
alent intemperance, with drinking nearly univer- 
sal and dram shops everywhere. 61 The temperance 
societies were organized about 1815. Others fu- 
tilely called upon the officers and electors of the 
state to enforce the long-neglected moral laws. 
Dwight and Beecher condemned duelling, a prac- 
tice to which Alexander Hamilton's death in 1804 
had drawn national attention. 62 

61 An "Address to the Churches and Congregations of the Western 
district of Fairfield" gave statistics showing a national consumption 
of seven and a third gallons of ardent spirits for persons over six years 
of age. Samuel Orcutt, History of Torrington, p. 204; David D. Field, 
History of Haddam, p. 10; Sarah E. Hughes, History of East Haven, p. 
100; Lamed, Windham County, II, 414; Loomis and Calhoun, The 
Judicial and Civil History of Connecticut, p. 55; Theodore Dwight, 
History of Connecticut, pp. 440-441; Duncan, Travels, II, 322-323; 
cf. Charles Francis Adams, Three Episodes of Massachusetts History, 
II, 783-794. One is astounded at the number of distilleries and re- 
tailers of liquors. Samuel Church, Address at Litchfield (1851), p. 68; 
Pease and Niles, Connecticut Gazetteer, pp. 36, 37, 43, 101, 143. 

62 Rev. Aaron Dutton, Sermon (1815); Rev. Simon Backus, Sermon 
(1804); Rev. William Lyman, Sermon (1806); Swift, System of the Laws, 



38 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

The efforts of the ministry were not unavailing, 
though often misdirected, for they were not intui- 
tively aware of the changes going on about them. 
This was well illustrated in their antagonistic atti- 
tude toward the so-called fashionable pleasures, 
such as balls, dancing, the drama, theatrical pre- 
sentations, wax shows, or travelling lions. They 
were inclined to look backward to the Puritan 
fathers around whom a legend had grown, only to 
canonize them by comparison with their descend- 
ants, who saw less sin in enjoying themselves and 
in ignoring various Sabbatical laws. Clerical in- 
terests and training were too localized to give them 
a broad visionary view of the future; yet in hold- 
ing up the "ideal Puritan," these clergymen set 
a standard of ethics and religion which offered 
a stimulating corrective to their people. The 
competition of the dissenting sects and fear of 
infidelity aroused the Congregationalist and revived 
the religious spirit. 

Such was the condition when complete toleration 
was guaranteed in 1818. At the time it was 
feared that this would be injurious to religion, or 
rather to Congregationalism, but the future deter- 
mined otherwise. Rev. Lyman Beech er spoke orac- 
ularly: "But truly we do not stand on the con- 
fines of destruction. The mass is changing. We 
are becoming another people." 63 

II, 325-327. Others felt that the "blue laws" were not relaxed. Dun- 
can, Travels, II, 118; Lamed, Windham County, II, 225. 
63 Autobiography, I, 261. 



THE LIBERALIZING OF CALVINISM 39 

4. The Liberalizing of Calvinism 

Contemporary with the growth of infidelity there 
was a liberalizing movement which looked toward 
the development of a sort of modernist "nominal 
Christianity." It came as a result of the increasing 
spirit of toleration and as a protest against the 
severe Calvinism of the fathers. Many were living 
up to a self-imposed Christian standard without 
identifying themselves with any of the diverse 
sects. Beecher described them as men who ac- 
cepted "moral sincerity" as the counterpart of 
grace; and Stiles, whose own toleration allowed 
him to meet as friends men of any or no creed, 
characterized these disinterested, passive Chris- 
tians as "stay-at-home Protestants." 64 They were 
men who agreed with the Anglican Bishop War- 
burton that "Orthodoxy is my doxy, and hetero- 
doxy is another man's doxy." 

This building of a bulwark of nominal Chris- 
tianity outside church walls was one result of the 
dread of atheism to which Zephaniah Swift gave 
utterance in that first American law text, A System 
of the Laws of the State of Connecticut (1795) : 

The being of a God is so universally imposed on the 
human mind, that it seems unnecessary to guard against a 
denial of it by human laws. Atheism is too cold and comfort- 
less, to be a subject of popular belief. 

In another chapter he succinctly expressed the 
new tendency: 

Men begin to entertain an idea, that religion was net in- 
stituted for the purpose of rendering them miserable, but 

M Diary. III. 67. 



40 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

happy, and that the innocent enjoyments of life are not 
repugnant to the will of a benevolent God. They believe 
there is more merit in acting right than in thinking right; 
and that the condition of men in a future state will not be 
dependent on the speculative opinions they may have 
adopted in the present. 85 

This was carrying to its logical conclusion the 
doctrine of private judgment with which the most 
orthodox would have concurred. Thus Rev. 
James Dana wrote: 

Well informed protestants are at length generally agreed in 
allowing to all the right of private judgement, which is the 
basis of the reformation, and the only principle upon which 
Christianity can be defended. 86 

It was a logical conclusion, but one to which a 
Congregationalist of the old stamp could not be 
expected to subscribe. Rev. Elijah Waterman 
grieved that: 

The stern virtues, the resolute and sober system of con- 
duct which marked the progress of our Fathers, are now 
softening down and wearing into a mechanical smoothness 
of behaviour, and what is infinitely more pernicious, a de- 
bilitated and unresisting pliancy of principle and morals. 67 

Rev. James Beach feared the dangerous compro- 
mise between the friends of error and irreligion who 
baited others with the saying: "It is no matter 
what men believe; if they are but sincere in their 
belief." 68 Judge Samuel Church would hesitate to 

65 System of the Laws, I, 145. II, 322. 
86 Two Discourses, p. 12. 

67 Sermon (1800), p. 37. 

68 Sermon (1806), p. 16. 



THE LIBERALIZING OF CALVINISM 41 

credit the oath of a man who habitually absented 
himself from the public worship of God. 69 

Rev. Dr. Holmes of Cambridge wrote in 1811 to 
John Cotton Smith : 

A religion under the flattering yet imposing name of ra- 
tional is substituted for the religion of the cross. Mysteries 
are exploded. Christianity, it is conceded, ought to be be- 
lieved in general; while it would seem, nothing need be 
believed in particular. As a whole it is worthy of all ac- 
ceptation; but the several parts which compose it may be 
rejected ad libitum. Religious opinions are different; and it 
is no matter what a man believes, provided he acted right. 
. . . . While it tolerates with the utmost benignity all 
the innovations of the Priestleian school, it brands with op- 
probrium the tenets of the Puritans. 70 

Such was the half-way point where many found 
themselves as a result of the conflict between infi- 
delity and Calvinism, and to which a near-sighted 
but well-meaning minister might point in refuting 
infidelity by emphasizing only the essentials of 
Christianity. The sermon, An Enquiry into the 
State of the Churches, by Rev. Samuel P. Williams, 
illustrates this to perfection : 

Good men may differ about the best form and place of 
religious conference ; but / am bold in Christ to say, good men 
cannot soberly differ about the utility and pleasure of re- 
ligious conference of some form. 71 

Such a throwing-down of the sectarian bars nat- 
urally resulted in un-churching many people. The 
old-fashioned doctrines were being relegated to the 

69 Rev. Jonathan A. Wainwright, Discourse (1867), pp. 25-26. 

70 Andrews, John Cotton Smith, pp. 67-68. 

71 P. 13. 



42 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

background. The preachers of such doctrines 
were unpopular. This was the condition which 
caused the Rev. Mr. Andrews of Windham to select 
the text, " I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed 
on you labor in vain," for his retirement sermon, 
which overflowed with the tragic discouragement of 
the helpless, but blameless old man. 72 It was this 
tendency to cater to the popular desire, to shade 
over the harsh doctrines of the fathers and to 
preach a " moderate Calvinism" that Jonathan 
Edwards, Jr. thundered against in his calls for a 
converted ministry, the plain preaching of the 
Gospel, and less practical and more religious ser- 
mons. 73 Edwards fought a life-long losing battle; 
for time and the new spirit were opponents too 
powerful even for his steel. Nor was Lyman 
Beecher to be more successful in his demand that 
ministers be not timid in preaching doctrines 
which offend or in enforcing church discipline for 
fear of parish stability lest they further the cause 
of infidelity. 

Congregationalism was becoming less rigid and 
harsh and more humanistic. The names of Jona- 
than Edwards the elder, Samuel Hopkins, Joseph 
Bellamy, Edwards the younger, Stiles, Dwight 
and Beecher mark the milestones of this evolution. 74 

72 Rev. J. E. Tyler, Historical Discourse, pp. 24-26. 

73 Sermon (1795). 

74 Foster, Genetic History, ch. xii, and Williston Walker, Creeds and 
Platforms of Congregationalism have been of assistance. 



congregational church membership 43 

5. An Estimate of the Congregational Church 
Membership 

It is impossible to estimate the number of deists 
or of non-church goers. This is not strange when 
one takes into consideration that atheists and 
deists were classed with felons who, on conviction 
of denying God, the Scriptures, or the Trinity, were 
disabled from holding any office, civil, ecclesiastical 
or military and, if convicted a second time, were 
deprived of their judicial rights. 75 As there do not 
seem to have been any convictions, although there 
were numbers who might easily have been appre- 
hended through informers, the law probably re- 
mained a dead-letter. In accordance with the 
statute of 1784, all residents who did not deposit 
a certificate of their dissent with the clerk of the 
ecclesiastical society in which they dwelt were Con- 
gregationalists, though at heart they might be 
deists, Unitarians, or atheists. This situation is, 
of course, characteristic of any community with a 
state-church. 

President Stiles estimated in 1794 that, of the 
eighty-five nominees for Assistants, one-third were 
Revelationists, one- third doubtful and the last 
third deists. Of the eighty-five, only about thirty- 
six were religious characters, the rest being Gallios, 
as some maliciously noted. Certainly, he added, 
too many were of doubtful religion and virtue, 
while some were of flagitious morals. 76 Occa- 

75 Statutes of Conn. (1808), p. 296; Swift, System of the Laws, II, 
320. 

76 Diary, III, 546. 



44 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

sionally one runs across estimates in pastors' ser- 
mons of the number of active parishioners and con- 
versions, from which one may arrive at superficial 
estimates by comparison with the known popula- 
tion of the town. These may or may not be repre- 
sentative towns, or representative years. New 
Haven in 1787 had three Congregational societies 
and one Episcopal church, with an enrollment of 
about thirty-one per cent of the population or 
about twenty-six per cent for Congregationalists 
alone. 77 Salisbury, a town of 2,266 people in 1800, 
had no organized churches for Methodists, Bap- 
tists or Universalists ; and from 1812 to 1818 there 
was no settled Congregationalist minister, so that 
the religious life must have fallen to a low level. 
In 1800 its pastor counted twenty-eight males and 
fifty-two females, giving a total church membership 
of about nine per cent. 78 In 1800 only about sixteen 
per cent of Windham's population of 2,644 were 
active Congregationalists. 79 Rev. Noah Porter of 
Farmington, in a sermon in 1821, spoke of the in- 
difference of that society for the past twenty years, 
with no revival since 1800 and with the lamentably 
small average of ten persons joining the society each 
year by profession or letter out of a population of 
2,000. 80 In this connection one should recall the 

"Stiles, Sermon, July 24, 1787. 

78 Church, Historical Address (1841), p. 29; Rev. Joseph Cro.ssman, 
Sermon (1803), pp. 17-18. 

79 Waterman, Sermon (1800), p. 38. 

80 Discourse (1821), p. 6. These records are good compared 
with the figures Stiles gave in 1769 for Plainfield, Stonington, New 
London, Norwich, Preston, and Lyman, where only from y 1 ^ to 



CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH MEMBERSHIP 45 

condition of Congregationalism in Yale which, 
while to some extent national in scope, was pretty 
representative of the Connecticut Valley. 

These figures are incomplete, but accurate enough 
to speak volumes. They sketch too dark a picture 
of Congregationalism as measured by results, but 
are indicative of the inroads of nothingarianism and 
of dissent. They seem to bear out an estimate, that 
hardly one-third of Connecticut was more than 
Presbyterian-Congregational in name; for, as we 
shall see, the dissenters were quite one-third of the 
total population. These ratios explain why the 
Old Order was doomed to defeat in spite of its 
splendid political organization, once dissenter joined 
forces with this large neutral body of nominal Con- 
gregationalists. It was this group of independent 
voters, if one may use present-day nomenclature, 
which carried the day for broad toleration. 

\ were church members of any kind. F. B. Dexter, Extracts from 
the Itineraries of Ezra Stiles, pp. 298 ff. 



CHAPTER II 

i. The Protestant Episcopal Church 

f I THIS period which we have just been consider- 
^ ing was also marked by an astonishing 
growth of dissent. While there may have been an 
occasional Quaker or Church of England man in 
the commonwealth from the beginning, and while 
dissent dated from the establishment of the Angli- 
can church in Stratford, dissent did not become 
widespread until after the Revolution. Connecti- 
cut as characterized by one form of church govern- 
ment, that of the Congregationalists alone, was to 
be no more. State and church were no longer 
to be composed of the same persons, citizens and 
church members. The Anglican was followed by 
the schismatic Strict Congregationalist, by the 
Baptist, and finally by the Methodist. Quakers 
remained in small numbers; Universalists entered 
the field; regular Presbyterians were represented; 
Unitarians existed outside the law; and in fact 
every English Protestant sect found place within 
the state. Naturally, their entrance was opposed 
by the religious body so long possessed of exclusive 
control of religion within the colony. As Judge 
Samuel Church wrote: "A history of intermingling 
sects has generally been little else than a history 
of unchristian contentions." 1 Connecticut, as he 
was well aware, proved no exception to this rule. 

1 Church, Historical Address, p. 37. 

46 



THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH 47 

On the part of the dissenters it was a fight first 
for existence, then for toleration, and finally for 
complete religious liberty. 

Equal rights were not granted until the dis- 
senter united with the non-believer and the mal- 
content Republican to control a working majority 
of the popular vote. Therefore, it is essential to 
sketch briefly the various dissenting groups in order 
to gain an idea of their grievances and numerical 
strength. The Anglican church may be consid- 
ered first because of its position of greatest respect- 
ability in the eyes of the Standing Order and 
because of its priority in point of time. I shall 
then take up in order the Separatists, Baptists, 
Methodists, and the smaller religious bodies. 

The Church of England in Connecticut was in- 
augurated by the conversion of Rector Timothy 
Cutler of Yale College and that of his tutors, Rev. 
Samuel Johnson and Rev. Daniel Browne in 1722. 
They were all excused from further college service, 
for their "apostacy" stirred the colony to its depths 
and resulted in intensely bitter criticism. 2 In 1724 
the first Anglican church was opened at Stratford 
with Dr. Johnson as its pastor. Insignificant as 
were these Anglican beginnings, they aroused an- 
tagonism and bitter persecution extending over 
several years. Churchmen were compelled to pay 
a tithe to the Congregational parish in which they 

2 Rev. E. Edwards Beardsley, The History of the Episcopal Church in 
Connecticut, I, 32, 42, 63; Sanford H. Cobb, The Rise of Religious Liberty 
in America, p. 268; Stokes, Memorials, I, 13-15; Dexter, Biographical 
Sketches , I. 



48 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

dwelt on penalty of imprisonment or distraint of 
goods. 3 Connecticut must indeed have seemed a 
strange place to the Anglican who found himself 
the dissenter, the persecuted and the payer of a 
tithe to an unfriendly establishment. There is 
pathos as well as humor in the early complaints 
against a legal system, which prevented any re- 
ligious assembly not conformable to the establish- 
ment or the Act of Toleration and which fined 
persons neglecting public worship and meeting in 
private houses twenty shillings, and unlawful 
ministers twenty pounds. 4 

The Anglicans were in an excellent position to 
force the issue by an appeal to the crown if neces- 
sary, especially as the home government was then 
hostile to charter colonies. The Legislature, aware 
of this, answered a petition of the Fairfield County 
Episcopalians with remedial legislation. 5 This act 
of 1727 gave Anglicans who had an organized 
society within a reasonable distance, even if in 
another state, the privilege of declaring themselves 
members and of taxing their membership for the 
support of their own minister and church. Thus 
they were freed from further attendance at the 
services of the established church, and from pay- 
ing a tithe for the maintenance of its ministry. If, 
however, there was no Anglican society within a 

3 Beardsley, Episcopal Church, I, 52, 59-61. 

4 Conn. Col. Records, VI, 248 ; Swift, System of the Laws, I, 140 ; Paul 
E. Laurer, Church and State in New England, pp. 85-87. 

6 Conn. Col. Records, VII, 106-108; Swift, System of the Laws, I, 140; 
Laurer, Church and State, pp. 85-87; Henry Bronson, History of Water- 
bury, p. 316; Alexander Johnston, Connecticut, p. 236. 



THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH 49 

reasonable distance, a churchman was legally rated 
as a Congregationalist ; in other words he was 
reckoned a tithe payer and church attendant. The 
illiberal interpretation of a reasonable distance such 
as two miles, meant that too few Anglicans were 
actually benefited. The law defeated the pur- 
pose of its framers, for it stimulated Anglican growth. 
He would be a lukewarm churchman who, taxed 
for religion, would not prefer to support his own 
rather than the dissenter's church. This act was 
the first step toward toleration, even though enacted 
for the sake of "fear and policy." Judge Swift 
realized this when he wrote: 

This accidental circumstance produced this exemption, 
at a much earlier period, than it would have happened, 
if the same religious sect had governed in England and 
Connecticut. 6 

The years following 1727 saw a rapid advance, 7 
preachers like Samuel Seabury, Sr., and John Beach 
going over to Episcopacy. Ezra Stiles was es- 
pecially uncharitable to the latter whom he de- 
scribed as a "high Churchman and a high Tory" 
whose sole aim in life was the conversion of 
" Heathen Presbyterians." The revival of the dec- 
ade of 1740 and the schism in Congregationalism 
encouraged Anglican growth and lessened the oppo- 
1 sition, much of which was being directed toward 

6 System of the Laws, I, 140. 

7 Stiles, Diary, III, 12; Dexter, Biographical Sketches, I, 239-244; 
Beardsley, Episcopal Church, I, chs. 7, 8, 9; Bronson, Waterbury, pp. 
294-310; Rev. John Avery, History of the Town of Ledyard, pp. 46-48; 
Rev. J. W. Alvord, Historical Address (1842), p. 24; Ralph D. Smith, 
The History of Guilford, p. 103. 



50 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

the schismatics. Churches were established in 
Stamford, in Guilford where later a number of Con- 
gregationalists resided, in Litchfield, in Middletown, 
and finally in Waterbury where at first the Legis- 
lature blindly rejected a petition for parish privi- 
leges even after the construction of the church 
building. 

This advance was not viewed complacently by 
the Standing Order, who opposed it with a mean- 
spirited, petty persecution, social and political when 
not legal. The town of Cornwall in 1752 actually 
sued one of its citizens "for damages for breaking 
the covenant, and conforming to the Church 
of England," and was awarded a judgment for 
fifteen pounds. 8 The tithe system administered 
by the "vestry" of the established society in the 
interest of that body was bound to work hard- 
ship. When a man severed connections with his 
society, he was an apostate to the creed of his 
fathers and a dodger of the support of the Gospel. 
Obstinate refusal to pay a tithe meant distraint of 
property or even hard labor enforced by corporal 
punishment or imprisonment. 9 Such treatment 
gave rise to charges of persecution, more often no 
doubt than circumstances warranted. 

The Church of England grew steadily until the 
days of the Revolution, aided as it was by the 
active support of the Society for the Propagation 

8 Wain wright, Historical Discourse, p. 12; Beardsley, Ecclesiastical 
History of Connecticut, I, 200. 

9 Joseph P. Beach, History of Cheshire, p. 120; Albert C. Bates, 
Records of Rev. Roger Viets, p. 5; Beecher, Autobiography, I, 342; George 
Barstow, The History of Neiv Hampshire, p. 425. 



THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH 51 

of the Gospel and the London Missionary Soci- 
ety. The Missionary Society, employing " In- 
trigue and vigorous exertion to get a Footing," 
supported missionaries, and an occasional school- 
master. It made donations to the small churches 
scattered throughout Connecticut, the greater 
part of them being unable to support a min- 
istry if left unaided, especially those of Litchfield 
County. In 1773 Stiles noted that there were fif- 
teen ministers and thirty-one churches, whereas 
in 1752 there had been but eight clergymen and six- 
teen churches. 10 He considered this only a natural 
increase which augured no prospect of "Episcopiz- 
ing" Connecticut. -Outside support was naturally 
frowned upon, for it was felt that there might be a 
political motive hidden behind the religious. 

New Haven became the seat of an Episcopal 
society about 1755. Although a clergyman was 
early established, there were only ninety-one mem- 
bers some seven years later. New Haven proved 
as barren soil for Anglican growth as for the Bap- 
tist and Methodist propaganda of later years, re- 
fusing to donate or sell a church site to Dr. Samuel 
Johnson. 11 Aside from the erection of a church 
in Bristol about 1760, the establishment of a small 
society in Middle Haddam and another at Pomfret, 
there was no advance until after the Revolution. 12 

Of the beginning of the Pomfret congregation, 

10 Goodenough, Clergy of Litchfield, p. 154; Stiles, Diary, I, 359-393. 

11 Dwight, Statistical Account, p. 43; Duncan, Travels, I, 113; Beards- 
ley, Episcopal Church, I, 65, 172, 198. 

12 Field, Statistical Account, p. 62; Rev. Noah Porter, Discourse (1821), 
p. 70. 



52 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Stiles has left an interesting account which is valu- 
able in illustrating the method of proselytizing. 
Colonel Godfrey Marlbone, an Oxford graduate, 
owned five thousand acres of land in the town of 
Brooklyn and, as his father before him had done, 
paid a heavy tithe to the settled society. At 
length he refused to pay his fourth of an assess- 
ment for a new church and, supported by the 
Bishop of London, he determined to build an 
Anglican chapel. Among his tenants and neigh- 
bors some ninety families (of whom a third had 
been Congregationalists) were glad to enroll in a 
society so well endowed. One can not but query 
if such conversions were not due to economic rather 
than to religious discontent. 13 

In 1760 there were sixteen churches with es- 
tablished clergymen and ten vacancies, while in 
1773 there were only fifteen ministers and thirty- 
one societies. In Fairfield County, where the 
Episcopalians were strongest, it was estimated that 
in 1773 they made up a third of the population. 
In Newtown, for instance, the Episcopalians 
equaled the Congregationalists in number. Rev. 
Elizur Goodrich, the Congregational minister at 
Durham, after a careful survey estimated the 
Anglicans in 1774 at one- thirteenth of the state's 
population. 14 

18 Diary, I, 30-31, 93-94. Cf. Charles F. Sedgwick, History of 
. . . Sharon, p. 98, and Rev. Herman R. Timlow, Ecclesiastical and 
other sketches of Southington, pp. 190-191. 

14 Stiles, Discourse (1761), pp. 135-138; Beardsley, Episcopal Church, 
pp. 286-288; Ezra Stiles, Itineraries, pp. 110 ff. 



THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH 53 

The position of the Anglican church during the 
war could not be more precarious. 15 Its desire 
for a bishop and its connection with the Missionary 
Society were pretexts rather than valid reasons 
for a renewed attack by those who still lived in fear 
of a Laud. As British support was withdrawn, 
missionary endeavors ceased. The missionaries 
were quite English in sympathy ; the interests of 
the permanent clergy, if not of their parishioners, 
were more closely related to the crown than to 
the colony. It is hard to conceive of a true church- 
man other than a loyalist. The Declaration of 
Independence found him again at Nottingham. 

Ezra Stiles was certain that all Anglicans shared 
the royalist views of the Rev. Mr. Peters, "The 
infamous Chh. Parson of Hebron," only differing 
in degree. 16 Some of the clergy emigrated by way 
( , of New York, while others obeyed the wiser counsel 
of men like William Samuel Johnson, patriot and 
churchman, and remained quiet while their people 
followed a course of unoffending neutrality. 17 
Rev. Samuel Seabury, an avowed loyalist and at one 
time chaplain of the loyalist regiment under Colonel 
Edmund Fanning, was seized at Westchester, New 
York, by Connecticut raiders and imprisoned for 

15 Beardsley, Episcopal Church, 1, 301 ff.; Dexter, Biographical Sketches, 
III, 264; Conn. Historical Society, Collections, I, 213; Major Christopher 
French, Journal, July, 1776; Charles H. Davis, History of Wallingford, 
pp.301 ff.; Church, Historical Address, p. 32; Charles B. Todd, History 
of Redding, p. 105; Bronson, Waterbury, pp. 301, 330; Rev. Joseph 
Anderson, The Town of Waterbury, I, 654-656; Stiles, Diary, II, 5-6. 

16 Peters of Blue-Law fame. Diary, II, 128. 

17 Beardsley, Episcopal Church, I, 301, 311. 



54 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

a time in New Haven. 18 Missionaries were sub- 
jected to scrupulous surveillance and hard treat- 
ment. Some churches were closed by parsons who 
could not reconcile the forced omission of the 
prayer for royalty with their canonical oath. 
Rector Abraham Jarvis was compelled by threats 
to suspend services, while other ministers, not dar- 
ing to read the service nor to appear in their sacer- 
dotal vestments, contented themselves with read- 
ing from the Bible on Sundays. In Salisbury all 
teaching was silenced and the church was turned 
into a military prison, while the Sharon church 
was converted into a barracks, even as the 
Roundheads had once converted "Paul's Church," 
London. The royal prerogative removed, Angli- 
cans learned that legal toleration meant little 
unless enforced by public sentiment and the police 
power. Later Episcopalian writers have been in- 
clined to minimize the Tory sympathies of their 
church during the crisis, and accuse the Puritans 
of allowing sectarianism and pent-up hatred free 
play under the guise of patriotism. In a word the 
Church of England barely lived through these 
days. 19 

At the close of the Revolution the Church of 
England was quite discredited. The Congrega- 
tionalist patriot saw in it only Toryism of the 

18 Stokes, Memorials, I, 46-47; Dexter, Biographical Sketches, II, 
179 flf. 

19 Bates, Rev. Roger Viets, p. 6; Todd, Redding, p. 105; Stiles, Diary, 
II, 45-46; Dexter, Biographical Sketches, II, 701 fL; Sedgwick, Sharon, 
pp. 61-63; Wainwright, Historical Discourse, pp. 18-20; Beardsley, 
Episcopal Church, I, 317 ff. 



THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH 55 

deepest hue as his fear of Episcopacy seemed to grow 
with his jealousy for America's newly won liberties. 
If a man of the breadth of Stiles regarded Episco- 
pacy with abhorrence and its ritual as a system of 
worship which deists and immoral men might 
conscientiously follow, what were the views of the 
ordinary layman? 20 

The reorganization of the Anglican church as 
the Protestant Episcopal church of America did 
much to lessen popular hostility. This severance 
of institutional dependence upon England was man- 
ifest because of the difficulty which the first Amer- 
ican bishop, Samuel Seabury, found in obtaining 
consecration. He was finally forced to seek orders 
from a non-juring Scottish bishop. 21 Then the di- 
vorce from the London Missionary Society, which 
cared only for the conversion of his Majesty's sub- 
jects, removed another popular grievance. How- 
ever, enough annoyance was kept up to encourage 
the church's growth and inspire its members. 

In 1 79 1 the Legislature passed a supplementary 
"Act to enforce the observance of days of public 
fasting and Thanksgiving." Labor of a servile 
character and all forms of recreation were forbidden 
on such days designated by the governor, under the 
penalty of a fine of from one to two dollars. Con- 
sidering this statute in the light of the habit of 
naming feasts on Episcopal fast days and vice 
versa, the cry of persecution does not seem a fancy. 

20 Diary, II, 113. Ill, 235; Dexter, Biographical Sketches, IV, 375. 
11 Beardsley, Life and Correspondence of the Rt. Rev. Samuel Seabury; 
Bronson, Waterbury, p. 301. 



56 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

This grievance was of short duration ; for Governor 
Huntington, a personal friend of the bishop, named 
Good Friday as the annual fast day in 1795. This 
tactful precedent was followed again in 1797, giv- 
ing the custom permanent establishment. 22 Bishop 
Seabury himself was at fault inasmuch as his 
affected signature of ' 'Samuel, Bishop of Connecti- 
cut," seemed to give point to the old imputation 
of episcopal aggressive and autocratic manners. 23 
Then his church in New London aroused suspicions 
of its good Americanism by refusing to celebrate 
Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1795 
because it fell in the Lenten season. To men of 
Puritan traditions this refusal appeared to be a 
quibbling pretext. 

From the time of the reorganization of the Prot- 
estant Episcopal church to the War of 18 12 num- 
bers increased; churches were built; new societies 
were organized ; and the Churchman 1 s Monthly Mag- 
azine was founded. 24 The Standing Order was 
brought to the point of recognizing the Episcopal as 
the second church in the state. Its ministers were 
men of education. Yale recognized this for the first 
time when, in 1793, a Doctor of Divinity degree was 
conferred upon an Episcopal clergyman. Their 
second bishop, Rev. Abraham Jarvis, like the first, 
was a Yale man, and sent his son to Yale. Episco- 

22 Statutes (1808), p. 285; Greene, Religious Liberty, p. 378; William 
De Loss Love, Fasts and Thanksgivings of New England, pp. 346-361. 

23 Address of Episcopal Clergy to Bishop Seabury and his answer, in 
Yale Miscellaneous Sermons, IV, Nos. 11, 12. 

24 Beardsley, Episcopal Church, II, 



THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH 57 

palians were becoming influential in the business 
life of the state. 25 

By 1 791 the number of clergymen had increased 
from ten to twenty. Ten years later the number 
of ministers was thought to be about twenty, with 
sixteen pluralities and seventeen vacancies as a 
record of churches. In 1810 Dwight estimated the 
number of churches or societies at sixty-one. This 
is the more remarkable when we remember that 
this strength was centered in six of the eight 
counties. Litchfield early heard Anglican preach- 
ing, but not until 1 784 was there a legally organized 
society in its midst, and then the growth was slow 
enough. Windham County, in 1807, could only 
count one Episcopal church among its forty-one 
societies though the Baptists had thirteen and 
the Methodists four. 26 

Brookfield established an Episcopal society in 
1785, fifty-five men having seceded from the estab- 
lished church. Three years later came the first 
rupture in the East Haven church when a number 
certified themselves Episcopalians rather than share 
the burden of a twenty pounds' increase in the 
minister's salary. By 181 1 a church and school 
were built. In 1790 churches were organized in 
Hamden, Burlington, and Southington; and a score 

26 New Haven Historical Society, Papers, III, 423; Mercury, Dec. 
26, 1805; Beardsley, Episcopal Church, II, 27; Dexter, Biographical 
Sketches, II, 701-706. 

26 Stiles, Diary, III, 151; Leland, Dissenters' Strong Box, p. 14; 
Trumbull, Sermon (1801), p. 16; Dwight, Travels, IV, 444 ff.; George C. 
Woodruff, History of the Town of Litchfield, p. 27; Larned, Windham 
County, II, 391. 



58 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

of Congregationalists of Hadclam were "converted" 
because of a momentous dispute over the location 
of a new church building. After 1800 strong 
parishes were formed at Killingworth, Kent, and 
Norwich. New Haven, though far from a favor- 
able center, offers a good example of this growth. 
With only ninety-five Episcopalians to four hundred 
and fifty-nine Congregationalists on the official tax 
lists in 1787, it was estimated by the minister of 
Center Church in 1800 that there were two hundred 
and twenty-six Episcopal as compared with four 
hundred and seventy-one Congregational is t families. 
This was a decidedly favorable advance. 27 

The Episcopal church suffered again in the War 
of 1 81 2 because of its alleged English sympathy, 
strange as this may seem in view of the dubious 
patriotism of the state. This bigotry in the guise 
of patriotism was particularly odious. 

With 1 81 5 a new period of progress began. The 
building of Trinity Church, New Haven, marked 
an epoch, for it was regarded as the most imposing 
church edifice in New England, and as such won the 
applause of all but the most orthodox. 28 Churches 
were erected here and there, where previously strug- 
gling societies had to be content with a temporary 

27 Sarah" E. Hughes, History of East Haven, under 1788; Pierce, History 
of Brookfield, p. 20; William P. Blake, History of . . . . Hamden, 
p. 192; Porter, Historical Address, pp. 68 ff.; Field, Haddam and East 
Haddam, p. 39; Field, Statistical Account, p. 113; Francis Atwater, 
History of Kent, p. 68; Frances M. Caulkins, History of Norwich, p. 
322; Stiles, Sermon, July 24, 1787; Dana, Two Discourses, pp. 65 ff. 

28 Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 103; Beardsley, Episcopal Church, 
II, 110, 124. 



THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH 59 

meeting house or some private dwelling. Yet 
John Crewse chosen as bishop by the convention 
of 1815, apparently refused the honor because of 
the uncertainty of an adequate "living" ; and not 
until 1 819 was Bishop Brownell consecrated. 29 In 
1 81 7 an older society was reorganized as the Protes- 
tant Episcopal Society for the Promotion of 
Christian Knowledge. 30 

The Congregational revival of 1816 caused an 
anti-Episcopal outburst. An illustration is to be 
found in the fact that Center Church, New Haven, 
tried to put the odium of expulsion on a member 
who joined the Episcopal fold. 31 Episcopacy was 
attacked for the sake of re-awakening Congrega- 
tional enthusiasm. Ultimately the net result was 
an increase in the number of churchmen. These 
attacks are accounted for by the more aggressive 
stand which the churchmen were taking, and 
because of their leaning toward the Republican 
party. Here again the church-state adherents 
were short-sighted, for they were only driving the 
discontented Episcopalians to ally themselves defi- 
nitely with that party. 

Episcopalians, while unable to gain legislative 
sanction for an Episcopalian college, believed that 
they were discriminated against by Yale. They 
might be eligible, but the fact remains that no 
Episcopalian could be pointed out as a member 

29 Courant, June 21, 1815; Rev. Samuel Hart, The Episcopal Bank 
and the Bishops' Fund, pp. 8-9. 

30 Beardsley, Episcopal Church, II, 151. 

31 Ibid., pp. 139 ft*.; Greene, Religious Liberty, p. 471. 



60 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

of the teaching force. 32 Episcopalian students were 
compelled to attend chapel exercises, though they 
were given permission under some circumstances 
to attend their own service. The government of 
the college even under the new constitution was 
chiefly in the hands of the ministry. Congrega- 
tional doctrine was taught. Law, divinity, and 
medicine were completely under the control of one 
denomination, though all were forced to support 
the college. 33 Hence Episcopalians were desirous 
of obtaining an act of incorporation for their 
academy at Cheshire, which had been founded in 
1801, and after some difficulty had been given a 
lottery privilege, which netted about $i2,ooo. 34 
This small concession encouraged the Episcopalians 
to continue their struggle for educational freedom. 
Without a college the Episcopalians felt that 
their ministry must suffer; that their boys would 
be alienated from the faith of their fathers ; and that 
their parishes must continue without rectors. It 
was something which their wealth and numbers 
demanded. They were not complaining of being 

32 John H. Jacocks, Bishop's Bonus, p. 56, declared that in over a 
hundred years there had been only two Episcopalian tutors, one of whom 
apostated, though President Clap estimated that one in ten graduates 
were of that persuasion. The defenders could only cite Tutor Denison, 
later Speaker of the House, whom Professor Dexter describes as a 
"devout but not a bigoted member of the Episcopal Church." Bio- 
graphical Sketches, V, 192. See article by Theodore Dwight, from 
Albany Advertiser, in Courant, June 18, 1816. 

33 Courant, June 18, 1816; Rev. B. Judd, Sermon, OcX.1, 1812. 

34 Bernard Steiner, History of Education in Connecticut, pp. 55 ff.; 
Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 115; Davis, Walling ford, pp. 444 ff.; Mer- 
cury, Nov. 11, 1805. 



THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH 61 

taxed to support Yale, they said, but were merely 
urging that they be granted equal rights. They 
maintained that the Cheshire Academy with an en- 
rollment of from fifty to seventy students was 
worthy of incorporation ; but to this the Congrega- 
tionalists offered a united opposition. The latter 
fearing the competition of a rival college contended 
that Yale was liberal enough. Nor could they see 
why each sect should have schools or how tutors 
in languages or chemistry could hurt Episcopalian 
susceptibilities. In 1804 an application for a 
charter was refused, and again in 18 10: while 
the Lower House approved, the Council rejected 
the proposal, which had been drawn up in the 
Cheshire convention and fathered by Jonathan 
Ingersoll, a leading churchman. The refusal was 
so discouraging that no further steps were taken 
until 1 8 12, when another petition remained un- 
answered. Episcopalians ascribed all to bigotry. 
Despite the increasing importance of the academy 
it was never chartered, nor were the Episcopalians 
to have their own college until Washington, later 
called Trinity, was founded at Hartford in 1823. 35 
Their failure emphasized the truth of the Re- 
publican assertion that loyal as Episcopalians and 
their bishop had been to the Federalist party, neither 
their interests nor those of their adherents had been 
advanced. Men like Samuel Johnson, Jonathan 

36 Davis, Walling ford, pp. 444 ff.; Greene, Religious Liberty, pp. 463- 
467; Beardsley, Episcopal Church, II, 66 ff.; Steiner, Education in Con- 
necticut, pp. 237 ff. Jacocks, Bishop's Bonus, Judd, Sermon, Oct. 7, 1812, 
and Mercury, July 19, 1810, afford valuable material. 



62 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Ingersoll, Mr. Beers of New Haven, had been 
awarded prominent positions, partly because of 
their native worth and partly as a political bid for 
the support of their order. Usually an Episcopalian 
found his way into the Council, generally because his 
co-religionists concentrated their votes. It was 
complained that they were over-represented in the 
Lower House. This may be doubted. It could be 
demonstrated, however, that Episcopalians were 
selected only in dissenting strongholds. Scarcely 
were they ever granted appointive positions. 36 

Episcopalians were further aroused by the re- 
fusal of ordinary justice in the case of the Phoenix 
Bank bonus. 37 In the spring of 1814 the backers 
of this Episcopalian bank petitioned the Legis- 
lature for articles of incorporation, offering a bonus 
of $60,000, which should be appropriated for the use 
of Yale for the newly established Medical School, 
the Bishop's fund, or for whatever the legislators 
deemed expedient. After considerable opposition 
and a liberal distribution of shares, a million-dollar 
charter was finally procured and $50,000 was 
donated as a bonus. The Assembly immediately 
passed bills granting $20,000 to the Medical School 
and an equal amount to the Bishop's fund, but in 
the latter grant the Council failed to concur, only 

36 Mercury, Nov. 19, 1801; Feb. 10, 1803; Sept. 26, Dec. 26, 1805; 
Courant, Aug. 30, 1816; Rev. William J. Bentley, Diary, III, 208. 

™Conn. Public Laws (1808-1819), pp. 43-46, 148 fL; Jacocks, 
Bishop's Bonus; defense of Legislature by Theodore Dwight, a member, 
Courant, June 18, 1816; Columbian Register, June 17, 1820; Hart, Episco- 
pal Bank; Samuel Church, Mss. History of Convention; Beardsley, 
Episcopal Church, II, 120-124; Greene, Religious Liberty, pp. 443-444. 



THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH 63 

the Episcopalian William Samuel Johnson favor- 
ing it. The excuse offered was that the state 
needed money because of the war. During the 
following year petitions for their share again failed. 
While, in accordance with the act of incorporation, 
the General Assembly was legally a free agent, 
yet it was not living up to the spirit of the act. 
The largess to the Medical School seemed a prece- 
dent for the Bishop's fund in which they were so 
keenly interested. 

Believing that the Legislature's action was due 
to Federalist intolerance and Puritan hatred of a 
bishop, they turned toward the sympathetic oppo- 
sition party, which was actively bidding for their 
support. Thus it was that "The Phoenix Bank, the 
child of Intrigue and the mother of Discord," caused, 
as Theodore Dwight bitterly noted, the Episcopalian 
to break from his party for the sake of his church. 

The number of Episcopalians in 1817 can only 
be roughly determined, so incomplete were paro- 
chial reports to the general convention. One author- 
ity estimated seventy-four Episcopal churches as 
compared to two hundred and thirteen Congrega- 
tional societies. The Connecticut Gazetteer gives 
practically the same figures, save that it enumer- 
ates three Congregational societies less. As there 
were only thirty-five Episcopal clergy, about one- 
half of the churches were vacancies, and probably 
were small as compared with the legal Congrega- 
tional enrollment. 38 In Middlesex County the 

38 Courant, June 17, Sept. 23, 1817; Beardsley, Episcopal Church, II, 
76 ff.; Morse and Morse, The Travellers' Guide, p. 91; Pease and Niles, 



64 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

church figures for 1815 are available and sufficiently 
accurate for a comparison. Out of 3,688 families, 
2,330 were legally classed as Congregationalists, 
and 421 as Episcopalian, or about eleven per cent 
of the total or nineteen per cent of the legal Con- 
gregational population. 39 It should be remembered 
too that Fairfield County, not Middlesex, was the 
stronghold. Miss Greene credits them with from 
one-eleventh to one-thirteenth of the population 
of the state in 18 16. This is rather low, for in 
1 81 7, when it was desired to placate the Episco- 
palians, the General Assembly allotted one-seventh 
of the national refund of the state war expenses 
to the Bishop's fund as the Episcopalian share. 
This semi-official estimate of their numbers was 
probably fairly accurate, though none too liberal. 40 
At any rate the Episcopalian vote was so im- 
portant numerically that its loss to the Federalists 
marked the end of their control. The Episco- 
palians used their strength to gain concessions which 
chanced to be liberal in character, rather than to 
bring about reform for principle's sake, thus dif- 
fering from the Baptists and Methodists who had 
labored through the heat of the whole day with the 
Republican for the overthrow of the state-favored 
church. Against an establishment as such the Epis- 
copalian could not logically declare, but only against 
a Congregational establishment. 

Gazetteer, p. 32. D. B. Warden, Statistical and Historical Account of 
the U. S., estimates 218 Congregational, 64 Episcopal and 67 Baptist 
societies. The Christian Messenger, quoted in Courant, Aug. 19, 1817. 

89 Field, Statistical Account. 

40 Greene, Religious Liberty, p. 444. 



THE STRICT CONGREGATION ALISTS 65 

2. The Strict Congregationalists 

The religious re-awakening of 1740 resulted in 
the first schism in Congregationalism. The revolters 
from the Saybrook platform were known as 
Separatists or New Lights, though they preferred 
the term Strict Congregationalists. As some twenty 
ministers were affected, the New Lights imme- 
diately became a thorn in the side of orthodoxy. 

The Legislature enacted a measure, excepting 
Separatists from the privileges of the Toleration 
Act. In 1742 a grand council of ministers at 
Killingworth condemned itinerant preaching in no 
uncertain terms. In answer to their petition the 
Legislature passed a statute directed against ir- 
regular ministers and exhorters, which fully met 
the approval of the general association. New 
Light preachers were subject to the law as un- 
settled exhorters, for they could not establish legal 
societies. Neither legislation nor persecution pre- 
vented the growth of the sect. 41 Finally it was nec- 
essary to exempt the ' 'commonly styled Separates" 
from paying taxes for the support of the regular 
ministry under the rules holding for Episcopalians. 42 

Fines and imprisonment for conscience sake only 
increased Separatist zeal. Social persecution on 
the part of those who believed that the Separates' 
conscience was mirrored in avarice and factious- 
ness had no more effect. Large societies were 

41 Conn. Col. Records, VIII, 569; Caulkins, New London, p. 451; 
Rev. Albert H. Newman, History of the Baptist Churches in the United 
States, p. 244. 

42 Conn. State Records, I, 232; Swift, System of the Laws, I, 146. 



66 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

founded before 1790 in Mansfield, Middletown, Led- 
yard, Norwich, New Milford, Cheshire and Cornwall, 
in addition to which there were nearly thirty small 
organizations. Secessions were often due to dif- 
ferences over the minister's election or salary or 
over meeting-house repairs, though at times to the 
more important though minute questions of church 
government and of doctrinal variations. 43 

This revolt within the church clearly demon- 
strated widespread discontent. Today it is in- 
teresting not so much for the counter movement 
in Congregationalism, but because it pried open 
the door of toleration just a bit wider. Inciden- 
tally the Separates were to increase the number of 
Baptists with whose doctrines and ideas of govern- 
ment they were closely in accord, for they found 
the support of a separate organization burden- 
some. Nevertheless about seven societies 44 lived 
to reap the benefits of the full religious freedom. 
At all events, while few in number, their members 
were early supporters of the reform party. 

3. The Baptist Church 

The Baptist denomination was represented in 
Connecticut by a society established at Groton as 
early as 1705, thus really antedating the Anglican 
church, although generally regarded as occupy- 

43 Newman, Baptist Churches, pp. 244-252; Larned, Windham 
County, II, 233-234; Avery, Ledyard, pp. 50-52; Field, Centennial 
Address, p. 168; Timlow, Southington, pp. 297 ff.; Beach, Cheshire, p. 
265; Greene, Religious Liberty, p. 236; Stiles, Diary, III, 380. 

44 Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 32. 



THE BAPTIST CHURCH 67 

ing second place among dissenting sects. Alarmed 
by its growth, the Legislature passed a statute in 
1723 forbidding private meetings and baptisms 
save by a regular minister of an approved congre- 
gation. As early as 1729, however, the Baptists 
together with Quakers were guaranteed the same 
legal privileges as the Anglicans. The agitation 
of 1742 against the exhorters and unlicensed 
preachers of the Great Revival resulted in the 
temporary repeal of the toleration acts. This 
greatly injured the four societies then in existence. 45 

When toleration was again granted in 1760, 
Ezra Stiles enumerated three societies, one in the 
county of New Haven and the other two in New 
London. 46 He probably referred only to settled 
societies because of his dislike of itinerant preachers 
and their evanescent congregations. While it must 
be remembered that Baptists on the border wor- 
shipped in Rhode Island meeting-houses, still their 
number was small throughout the colonial period. 

Their early history was one of contention, 47 but, as 
in the case of the other dissenting sects, this seemed 
merely to advance their cause. The chief difficulty 
centered around the obtaining of certificates, which 
freed those professing themselves Baptists from 
all tithes and obviously cut down the fund of the 

46 Conn. Col. Records, VII, 237; Swift, System of the Laws, I, 140- 
141; Loomis and Calhoun, Judicial History, pp. 54-55; Newman, Baptist 
Churches, p. 271; Field, Statistical Account, p. 99; Porter, Historical 
Address, p. 68. 

46 Discourse (1761), pp. 135-138. 

47 Lamed, Windham County, II, 246, 373; Newman, Baptist Churches, 
p. 364; Henry R. Stiles, History of Ancient Windsor, p. 439. 



68 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

standing minister and raised the per capita tithes 
of the remaining parishioners. Thus one can easily 
explain this persecution as often due only to the 
local administration of the law. At times exhort- 
ers found it difficult to obtain a hearing, Stiles 
noting that an itinerant Baptist was met with 
such a disturbance in New Haven that the meeting 
was broken up. Here again it was not the law, 
but the spirit of its enforcement. 

The characterization of Stiles is suggestive: 
"The Baptists are a religious people and do not 
cover Scandal." He criticized them, and some- 
what justly, as caring more about re-baptizing 
Christians than for anything else. 48 Rev. Thomas 
Robbins, regarding them fairly dispassionately, felt 
that: "The disorganizing principles of the Bap- 
tists do considerable damage." 49 

The Baptists early opposed clerical taxation 
without representation. While the Massachusetts 
and Connecticut colonials were raising this con- 
stitutional question, it is of moment to remember 
that a similar struggle was going on within their 
own ranks. The dissenter, who did not live in 
the vicinity of his own chapel or society, was 
legally a member of the Congregational parish of 
his residence and constrained to pay a tithe in 
support of its maintenance. These rates being 
voted upon only by enrolled members of the society, 
the dissenter was taxed by a local body in which 
he conscientiously could not be represented. As 

"Diary, I, 18. II, 114. 
49 Diary, I, 90. 



THE BAPTIST CHURCH 69 

early as 1770 the comparatively few Baptists were 
threatening an appeal to the crown. The patriots 
in 1774 charged that Rev. Isaac Backus was sent 
to England with imaginary grievances, in order 
to prevent united action by the colonies. Backus 
pointed out in a letter to the Massachusetts As- 
sembly how much more grievous were the Baptist 
burdens than the three-penny tax on tea, the pay- 
ment of which could be evaded by simply abstain- 
ing from tea-drinking. This attitude and their 
dubious stand on the ethics of war gave the Baptists 
a set-back during the Revolution. 50 

This was but temporary, for the law of 1784, 
removing all disabilities save that of the certifi- 
cate, resulted in an astonishing Baptist revival. 
Old societies becoming stronger were building 
meeting-houses. New societies were instituted be- 
i fore the century's close in Chatham, Burlington, 
Middle and East Haddam, Hampton, Woodstock, 
Southington, Middletown, East Hartford, Bristol, 
* Cornwall, and Norwich; and before 181 5 others 
\ were established in Cromwell, Waterbury, New 
London, Killingworth, Guilford, New Haven, Pom- 
fret, Stonington and elsewhere. Between 1760 
and 1790 the number of churches increased from 
three to fifty-five with at least 3,200 communi- 
cants. In 1800 it was estimated that there were 
fifty-nine societies with 4,663 members. Windham 
County alone had thirteen Baptist societies in 

50 Newman, Baptist Churches, pp. 349 ff., quoting Backus's letter 
of Nov. 22, 1774, p. 358; Stiles, Diary, I, 491, 581. II, 29; Alvord, 
Stamford, p. 22. 



70 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

1806 as compared with only twenty Congrega- 
tional churches, though the latter were larger 
and more stable. Rev. John Leland testified 
that at this time there were forty- two regis- 
tered preachers in the state and 4,200 communi- 
cants, not counting the numerous visitors. By 
1 812 the number of societies was estimated at 
from sixty-one to sixty-five with about 5,500 mem- 
bers, aside from a few Six- Principle and Seventh - 
Day Baptists. 51 

This was indeed a remarkable record. Yet it 
was a slow growth as compared to the rapid strides 
made in the frontier sections of New England, where 
it was readily admitted that the Baptists made 
even greater headway than the Methodists. 52 To 
explain their success was not difficult. 

In the first place the Baptist tenets appealed with 
particular force to men inclined toward strict Con- 
gregationalism. Both sects preached against an 
unregenerate membership and had similar rules of 
church government. No doubt many individual 
Separatists joined the Baptist societies. At all 
events the practical difficulty of supporting a 

51 This paragraph is based on the following sources: Newman, Baptist 
Churches, pp. 64, 271; Henry S. Burrage, A History of the Baptists in 
New England, p. 235; Leland, Broadside (1806), p. 4; Larned, Windham 
County, II, 246, 373, 391; Porter, Historical Address, pp. 72 ff.; Field, 
Statistical Account, pp. 47, 62, 80, 113; Field, Centennial Address, p. 178; 
Timlow, Southington, p. 297; Joseph Goodwin, East Hartford, p. 145; 
Theodore Gold, Historical Records of Cornwall, p. 176; Caulkins, Norwich, 
p. 321; Rev. M. S. Dudley, History of Cromwell, p. 20; Caulkins, New 
London, p. 598; Anderson, Waterbury, III, 670; Ralph D. Smith, History 
of Guilford, p. 110; Richard A. Wheeler, History of Stonington, p. 90. 

52 Tudor, Letters, p. 68; Bentley, Diary, III, 192. 



THE BAPTIST CHURCH 71 

preacher and a church compelled a number of weak 
societies to fuse with infant Baptist bodies. This 
was true of the Separatist organizations of Haddam, 
East Haddam, Westfield, Southington, West Haven, 
and New Milford. This not only augmented 
the number of Baptists, but gave them a more 
respectable standing than was granted to the 
Methodists. 53 

The illiteracy of the Baptist preachers afforded 
an opportunity for severe criticism by the clergy 
of the Standing Order. In the eyes of the educated 
minister such a preacher seemed dangerously un- 
professional, whereas the ordinary Baptist ex- 
horter despised an educated, trained ministry as 
ungodly in being too far removed from primitive 
times. Here we have one reason why the Baptists 
were rated lower than the Anglicans whose clergy 
were educated. The itinerant evangelist was a man 
of the street, the shop or the field who "got" re- 
ligion and a call to preach. 54 A scholar of the type 
of Stiles had very little charity for such a teacher 
of the Gospel. He jotted down in his diary the 
fact that a New-Light Baptist minister ordained 
an immoral man "in a boisterous if not blasphe- 
mous manner," and that "he preached or raved 
from 'feed my Lambs.' " In various passages 
Stiles wrote censoriously of the coarseness, of the 

53 Larned, Windham County, II, 391; Field, Haddam, p. 39; Field, 
Centennial Address, p. 194; Sheldon Thorpe, North Haven Annals, p. 
326; Minot S. Giddings, Two Centuries of New Milford, p. 12; Timlow, 
Southington, pp. 297 ff.; Dwight, Travels, IV, 444 ff.; Laurer, Church 
and State, p. 88; Greene, Religious Liberty, p. 236. 

54 Cf. Rev. David Benedict, Fifty Years among the Baptists, p. 211. 



72 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

noisy, turbulent manners and of the doubtful 
morality of the itinerant preachers. 55 To a man of 
Dwight's aristocratic bent, their gross ignorance, 
lack of a stipulated salary and their status as 
farmers and mechanics of volubility made them 
an abomination. 56 

The Baptists themselves began to see the need 
of a learned ministry, at least in long settled 
communities. This explains their eagerness to 
found a college in Rhode Island. Stiles, then a 
Newport minister, denied any connection with the 
college although his name had been used in petition- 
ing the Legislature for its charter, but declared 
that he wished the venture well, "as it is the only 
means of introducing Learning among our protes- 
tant Brethren, the Baptists, I mean among the 
Ministers." 57 

Yet this very lack of academic culture and aristo- 
cratic bearing endeared the itinerant preacher to 
the ignorant and lowly of the town and to the 
frontier-like farmers in the confines of the state. 
In contrast to the average Yale graduate in the 
Congregational pulpit he was democratic and 
boasted of the fact. He associated on equal terms 
with the discontented underlings of society, where- 
as the settled minister fraternized, condescended, 
or ruled his flock as occasion demanded. They be- 
longed to two different social classes as well as to 
two opposing political parties. The exhorter be- 

65 Diary, I, 18, 163. Ill, 388. 
56 Travels, I, 147. 
67 Diary, I, 22. 



THE BAPTIST CHURCH 73 

came a stanch Republican, an agitator for reform, 
while the Congregational minister was settling 
into a Bourbon-like conservatism. 

The democracy of the Baptist and, for that 
matter, all dissenting churches as opposed to the 
recognition of caste in the Congregational churches, 
was illustrated by the method of church seating. 58 
In most Congregational societies it was customary 
to dignify seats, assigning them according to the 
age, family, or wealth of the occupant. At times 
this was carried down to the seating of boys and 
girls. In some societies men were seated according 
to age, with the modification that a defined amount 
of property should count as a year. According to 
this rule a wealthy young man would be seated 
among the hoary-haired fathers of the church. 
A loss of property meant a change of seat. Such 
an aristocratic custom was out of tune with the 
times. Yale realized this when, about 1765, her 
students were for the first time catalogued alpha- 
betically instead of according to their social stand- 
ing. The question of seating was in itself unim- 
portant save in so far as it was typical of a system 
which drove men into the ranks of infidelity or sec- 
tarianism. Attacked on all sides by religious men 
and politicians this sensitive barometer of social 
ranking was declared to be unchristian as well as 
undemocratic. 

Democracy within the Baptist organization was 

68 Beach, Cheshire, pp. 111-112; Camp, New Britain, p. 95; Timlow, 
Southington, pp. 181 ff.; Rev. Chacles S. Sherman, Memorial Discourse, 
July 9, 1876; Dexter, Biographical Sketches, III, 168, 233. 



74 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

another reason for rapid growth. To the Con- 
necticut mind long trained in hatred of Episcopacy, 
both the Methodist-Episcopal and Episcopal 
churches with their bishops appeared undemo- 
cratic, whereas the Baptist church was decidedly 
opposed to the episcopal office. Their exhorters, 
unlike the leading Congregational divines, could 
not be described as bishops in power and wealth, 
without the onus of the name. Aside from the 
simplicity of the ministry there was a sense of 
equality among the congregation. Business mat- 
ters in the Congregational society such as the levy- 
ing of church rates were determined in a meeting of 
the covenanted members, a much smaller group 
than the legally recognized nominal members, or 
even by a still smaller number known as pillars of 
the church. 59 In the Baptist societies, although 
only the "certified" people would desire the vote, 
the suffrage seems to have been wider. Stiles was 
surprised that it included even the sisters of the 
church, a thing unheard of in a Congregational 
church in which women might remain only as silent 
auditors. 60 These democratic characteristics ap- 
pealed to the men of that day, who like to "feel 
sovereignty flowing through their veins." 

The Baptists were a discontented element from 
the beginning. Other dissenters might oppose the 
establishment for practical reasons and be molli- 
fied by concessions, but not so the Baptist. To 

69 For a discussion of this point, see Albert E. McKinley, The Suffrage 
Franchise in the Thirteen English Colonies in America, pp. 424-425. 
60 Diary, I, 147. 



THE BAPTIST CHURCH 75 

him the separation of church and state had the 
force of dogma. Only its root and branch destruc- 
tion and a Gospel supported by voluntary con- 
tributions alone would satisfy him. An act of 
toleration, granted by a beneficent legislature, 
conveyed to his troubled conscience the idea of 
tyranny and persecution in the very usage of the 
words toleration and dissenter. He would not be 
appeased. 

During the Revolution Connecticut Baptists 
read such pamphlets as Isaac Backus's An Appeal 
to the Public for Religious Liberty, The Exact Limits 
between Civil and Ecclesiastical Government, and Israel 
Holly's An Appeal to the Impartial. Backus, as a 
leading American Baptist, exerted a wide influence. 
The logic of the Baptist contention appealed to 
thinking men, for it was indeed strange that Puri- 
tans who once fled in terror from a royal church, 
should themselves set up what was to all practical 
purposes a persecuting establishment. Then at- 
tention could not be diverted from the inconsist- 
ency of New England refusing religious freedom 
to dissenters who were assisting in the struggle for 
political independence. 

The general Act of Toleration in 1784 in no re- 
spect met Baptist demands for a free church within 
a free state. They were quite wrought up over 
the various projects to sell the Western Reserve 
and use the proceeds as a fund for the support of 
the Congregational ministry and the schools. 61 
This opposition was one of the reasons why it was 

61 Greene, Religious Liberty, pp. 380 ff. 



76 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

found advisable to use the lands only as a school 
endowment. 

In 1794 Rev. John Leland addressed a crowd of 
angered Baptists from the capitol steps, urging 
them to join in bringing about reform, freedom of 
conscience, and a complete disestablishment. 
Leland, though his pastorate was in Cheshire, 
Massachusetts, became a spokesman for the Con- 
necticut Baptists. He had recently removed from 
Virginia where he had energetically supported the 
reform movement which resulted in 1786 in the 
separation of church and state. 62 This gave him a 
crusader's zeal for the combat with New England 
reaction. In 1801 he delivered a telling criticism 
of the Congregational system in his sermon, A 
Blow at the Root. The following year he pub- 
lished The Connecticut Dissenters' Strong Box, con- 
taining one of his earlier productions, The high-fly- 
ing Churchman stript of his legal Robe appears a 
Yoho, besides the dissenters' petition, Connecticut's 
ecclesiastical laws, and extracts from the various 
state constitutions, showing that sixteen states 
recognized the rights of conscience and three of 
these the doctrine of church and state. In 1806 
he appeared in print with a tract, Van Tromp 
lowering with his peak with a Broadside, containing 
a plea for the Baptists of Connecticut. He severely 
indicted the Standing Order with its tithed, worldly 
ministry; and pleaded for a pure ministry and 
voluntary Gospel support. No single man did more 

82 Greene, Religious Liberty, p. 374. 



THE BAPTIST CHURCH 77 

to educate his people and the general public to 
demand religious freedom. 63 

Lei and was one of the first to realize the need of 
a written constitution as a safeguard against legis- 
lative infringements, and as the only means of per- 
petuating the blessing of religious liberty. He 
furthermore maintained that, as the interests of 
New England Federalism and the state religions 
were mutual, those opposed to state churches must 
cast their lot with the Republican opposition. Nor 
d ; d he fear a coalition with ungodly Republicans. 
He agreed with the anonymous writer who said: 

You now, perhaps, may feel yourselves authorized to 
repeat the charge that we are acting in concert with infidels ; 
and why should we not be, so far as infidels make use of right 
reasons? I have attempted to make appear that so far 
they are nearer to revelation than any kind of a State church, 
as such whatever. 64 

His arguments led the Baptists, and incidently 
other dissenters, to join the party of their interests 
and principles. To the charge that in making 
onslaughts on legislation supporting the Gospel 
he furthered deism, he advised his opponents: 

If you wish to prevent the spread of deism and infidelity, 
renounce State aid and convince the world that religion can 
stand alone; let it never be said that a cow, or a dollar, or a 
cent is taken from any widow or man, by the constable, to 
complete your salaries or pay for your temples. 65 

The work of Leland encouraged the Baptists 
persistently to petition the Legislature for redress. 

63 About this time the Windham Herald press published a "Review 
of the Ecclesiastical Establishments of Europe," by R. Huntington. 

64 The Age of Inquiry (1804), by a True Baptist, p. 16. 

65 Leland, Sermon, Apr. 9, 1801. 



78 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

In these petitions it was argued that a legally sup- 
ported ministry was contrary to God's law, and 
that the certificate law wounded the conscience 
even when it occasioned no real persecution. If, 
as the Congregationalists held, it was a mere trifle, 
let the state give it up. The three pence on tea, 
it was recalled, was only a trifle. Then the certifi- 
cate law left unchurched Baptists at the mercy 
of the tithe-reeve, as well as dissenting non-resi- 
dent land owners. Why not tax your actual en- 
rolled membership, it was asked. Here they struck 
to the quick, for it was generally feared that such a 
plan would leave an unsupported ministry and put 
a premium on non-affiliation. The petitioners 
expatiated on the evil of established churches, 
which, they argued, had always stimulated infi- 
delity. Attacks on the Anglican church probably 
alienated the Episcopalians. If so, their methods 
were more honest than politic. Some of the 
petitions urged that there was no constitutional 
basis for the establishment, for King Charles 
would not have granted such a privilege to dis- 
senters. Hence they humbly prayed that their 
sufferings be alleviated. Their arguments against 
the ungodliness of a compulsory church tax were 
not unlike those of Abraham Bishop. Nor is 
it improbable that there may have been some 
collaboration. John Leland at any rate sub- 
scribed to the views advanced by his brethren 
petitioning against "fettered religion." 66 

66 Bishop, Address (1802), pp. 84 ff.; "Old Hundred," in Mercury, 
Apr. 22, 1802; David Daggett, Broadside (1803); Bentley, Diary, III, 



THE BAPTIST CHURCH 79 

These memorials offer a close parallel to the later 
abolitionist petitions which tormented and puz- 
zled Congress. The 1802 petition died in the 
Lower House committee. That of 1803 gained 
a hearing, only to be lost by the strictly party vote 
of 131 to 45. At. this time the Baptists vainly 
appealed for Methodist support, for Bishop Asbury 
saw no reason why Methodists should further the 
interests and liberties of a sect which railed against 
Episcopacy in whatever form. 67 In 1804 another 
petition was lost by 106 votes to 77. 68 Every 
session was favored with a petition until 181 8, 
though the Council did not so much as take them 
under consideration until 181 5. These petitions, 
subscribed to by thousands, it was said, were wide- 
ly circulated. Advertised by Republican papers, 
they were fathered in the Assembly by Republican 
leaders and supported by a solid phalanx of the 
Republican votes. In this way the alliance be- 
tween Republican and Baptist was tightly cemented. 

The Baptists became an important element in 
the Republican party as early as 1802 when Bishop 
appealed to them and all other humbler dissenters 
against "the sultanlike professors" of the estab- 
lished order. A Baptist pamphleteer thus urged 
Republican claims: 

192. There is good material in the following issues of The American 
Mercury, June 4, 1801, July 7, 1803, Oct. 4, 11, 1804. 

67 Journal, III, 404. 

68 For votes, Mercury, July 14, 1803, May 31, 1804. See Emily 
Ford, Notes on the Life of Noah Webster, I, 527-528. Webster along 
with Oliver Ellsworth acted on the committee which rejected the 1802 
petition. 



80 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Republicanism, as the source of civil liberty and happi- 
ness, dictated by reason in the state — would never be affected 
with licentiousness and disorder, were it not for the opposi- 
tion of its enemies, and the principles which lead to monarchy 
and aristocracy — its parallel in the church, as the source 
of religious liberty and spiritual happiness, dictated by 
revelation. 69 

Such appeals were timely; for they removed any 
conscientious scruples against acting with a party 
whose members were so generally held up for 
execration. Baptist elders did not hesitate to offer 
prayer at Republican celebrations or occupy posi- 
tions of honor at Republican banquets. 

While actual figures showing Baptist strength 
are not available, enough statistical material is at 
hand to make clear the importance of the sect as 
an element in the opposition party. Dr. David 
Field, a Congregational minister, estimated the 
number of Baptist families in Middlesex County 
at 489 out of a total of 3,688, or about thirteen 
per cent. 70 There is no reason to believe that this 
county was more of a Baptist stronghold than 
any of the other counties save Litchfield. In 1818 
an impartial statistician reckoned that the Baptists 
had ninety-seven societies plus four insignificant un- 
organized groups. The annual Almanack and Reg- 
ister listed about eighty-six societies, whereas Morse 
and Morse in their usually very accurate Guide 
estimated that there were ninety Baptist societies 
or sixteen more than the number granted to the 
Episcopalians. In 1820 a Baptist historian thought 

69 The Age of Inquiry (1804), p. 11. 

70 Statistical Account. 



THE METHODIST-EPISCOPAL CHURCH 81 

that there were about seventy-three societies with 
7,503 communicants. 71 While these figures do not 
square, it is easy to explain away the inconsisten- 
cies, as the number of societies fluctuated and as 
some authorities counted unorganized groups. At 
any rate, their number stiffened the Baptist de- 
mands and vastly aided in the Toleration-Republi- 
can triumph. 

4. The Methodist-Episcopal Church 

Connecticut Methodism had a short history at 
the time under consideration. Jesse Lee, that 
successful itinerant exhorter, may accurately be 
said first to have thrust its belief on the attention 
of the state in his "iter" of 1789. 72 While its early 
growth was discouragingly slow, time attested that 
Connecticut was a fallow field for Methodist 
endeavors. 

The introduction of Methodism was made com- 
paratively easy by the statute of 1784 which 
guaranteed to Methodists the right of dissent, 
if properly certified to some organized society. 
A supplementary act of 1791 gave this privilege 
to all Christians, but compelled the filing of a cer- 
tificate with the clerk of the Congregational society 
as proof that they were 'supporting a near-by 

71 These figures are computed from the town statistics given in the 
Pease and Niles Gazetteer, and the Almanack and Register for that year. 
See Guide, p. 91; Burrage, Baptists in New England, p. 235. 

72 Nathan Bangs, History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, I, 288- 
290. Ill, 365 ff. As to the possibility of earlier Methodists, see Gold, 
Cornwall, p. 175; Alvord, Historical Address, pp. 24-26; Anderson, 
Waterbury, pp. 693 ff. 



82 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

society of their own persuasion. 73 While the enact- 
ment did not prove as liberal in the working as in 
theory, it was more tolerant than the system in 
vogue in frontier Vermont until 1801 or Massachu- 
setts until 1814. 74 

Hence it was possible for a small group of Metho- 
dists to deposit certificates of dissent with the clerk 
of the Congregational society and maintain a station 
on the circuit of some exhorter. This much the 
Methodists owed to the strivings of fifty years on 
the part of the earlier dissenters. 

Furthermore, early Methodism was advanced on 
account of the low tone of religious life and the 
weakening hold of Congregationalism on the people, 
as evidenced by their ' 'certificating themselves" 
on grounds other than those of conscience. The 
materialistic reaction after the Great Awakening, 
along with the increasing discontent among the poor 
and lowly, with the political, social, and religious 
organization of the state also aided the new sect. 
But finally its astounding growth must be accredited 
to the frantic enthusiasm of the early adherents and 
to the tireless work of the zealous circuit rider. 

The following short sketch of the growth of 
Methodism will bring out fully enough the methods 
employed by the circuit preachers, the reasons for 
their success and the petty persecution to which 
its adherents were subjected. On the other hand, 
it will be seen that the conservative Standing Order 

™ Conn. Statutes, p. 575; Swift, System of the Laws, I, 146; Loomis 
and Calhoun, Judicial History, p. 55. 
74 Laurer, Church and State, pp. 98-99. 



THE METHODIST-EPISCOPAL CHURCH 83 

was not without grounds for their opposition to 
and fear of what they honestly regarded as over- 
turning, revolutionary practises in the garb of re- 
ligion. By chronicling their advance in this and 
that locality the reader will gain some idea of their 
numerical strength. 

Stratford has the honor of being the seat of the 
first legally established Methodist society in the 
state. Consisting in 1789 of only three charter 
members, even its founder, Jesse Lee, could hardly 
have waxed exultant over the future. However, its 
membership was increased by those of little faith, 
who preferred to support voluntarily the Metho- 
dist church, rather than the establishment. 75 
This was a period, it might be suggested, when all 
taxes were a grievance to the more contentious of 
the Connecticut Yankees. Later in that same year 
Jesse Lee enrolled two or three persons in a society 
at Redding. As great as was the opposition of the 
town officials, their money-making propensities in- 
veigled them into renting the town house to the 
Methodist elders. By 181 1 this humble society 
was in a position to build a plain, unpainted, steeple- 
less church. In the next few years small groups 
were organized at Norwalk, Fairfield, Milford, Dan- 
bury, Canaan, Windsor, Haddam, Middle Haddam, 
East Hartford, Cornwall, Waterbury, and Gales 
Ferry. 76 A society was established in New London 
by a converted Congregationalist minister, despite 

75 Bangs, Methodist Church, I, 291. Cf. Lamed, Windham County, 
II, 233-234. 

76 Todd, Redding, pp. 113 ff.; Field, Haddam and East Haddam, p. 
39; Stiles, Windsor, p. 440; Field, Statistical Account, p. 62; Avery, 



84 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

the vexatious persecution to which he, an apostate, 
was subjected. Yet it only offers another instance 
of a religious society thriving under persecution, 
for in a couple of years a church was built, and by 
1 819 there were about three hundred and twenty 
members. Even New Haven was invaded in 

I795. 77 

During the decade of 1790 Bishop Asbury made 
several tours through Connecticut to stimulate 
members and missionaries and to consolidate the 
scattered societies. Incidentally his own enthu- 
siasm, sermons, and exhortations resulted in more 
conversions. His Journal affords the best source 
of information regarding Methodist efforts and 
the discouraging obstacles everywhere to be sur- 
mounted. 78 Sometimes consciously, then unin- 
tentionally he tells of the petty persecutions and 
the unchristian tone of his reception. In some 
towns he was confronted with an openly hostile, 
mob-like gathering; town halls and meeting places 
presented locked doors ; and at times his ardor met 
only a chilling coldness. New Haven's frigid treat- 
ment he could only describe as a "curious recep- 
tion." President Stiles heard him at this time, but, 
contrary to his usual custom, made no observa- 
tion of moment in his diary. 79 

Ledyard, p. 54; Stiles, Diary, III, 417; Asbury, Journal, III, 255, 291; 
Bangs, Methodist Church, II, 353. 

77 Caulkins, New London, p. 595; Barber and Punderson, History 
and Antiquities of New Haven, pp. 29-30. 

78 Journal, II, 102-106, 137, 198,227,231. Ill, 242. Supplement 
with Moses L. Scudder, American Methodism, pp. 465 ff. 

79 Diary, III, 420. 



THE METHODIST-EPISCOPAL CHURCH 85 

Asbury carefully noted the few kindnesses which 
he received, such as the use of a townhall or when 
thriving Baptist organizations honored him with 
the use of their pulpits. Apparently Baptists and 
Methodists, in the face of opposition of the Con- 
gregational order, worked in more than usual har- 
mony, even though appealing to the same social 
class. 80 

At times to the man in the saddle Connecticut 
seemed an unpropitious field for evangelical labors. 
Still, by 1800, the foundations had been laid. The 
revivals of that year, with their renewal of interest 
in spiritual affairs, helped to increase the Metho- 
dist following. 81 Then too, like the Baptists, they 
found an advantage in the association between 
dissent and Republicanism. Dissent came to be 
political as well as religious. Logically the Metho- 
dist could be but democratic in feeling and Re- 
publican in party, for he was invariably one of the 
submerged group, if the term can be used in con- 
nection with the social life of the commonwealth. 
At all events the period of political troubles and 
bitter partisan rivalry tinged with religious persecu- 
tion proved conducive to the growth of Methodism. 

East Hartford organized a society in 1800. 
Sharon, a few years later, witnessed in the entrance 
of dissent the first breach in the town church. 

80 For evidence forcing a modification of this statement, Asbury, 
Journal, III, 104. 

81 By 1801 there were about 1,600 Methodists in the state. Greene, 
Religious Liberty, p. 407; Abel Stevens, History of the Methodist-Episcopal 
Church, IV, 63; Bangs, Methodist Church, II, 101; Scudder, American 
Methodism, pp. 264-265. 



86 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Vainly, but bitterly, did they attempt to stifle the 
schismatic revolt. The New Haven society was 
large enough by 1807 to warrant a building and 
later to be taken off the circuit. Cornwall, Norwich, 
Hamden, Waterbury, Burlington, Saybrook, Sey- 
mour — all organized churches in the next decade. 
In Granby it was said that the Methodists out- 
numbered the more respectably rated Episcopal- 
ians. Middletown, destined to become the seat of 
a Methodist college, was taken off the circuit by 
1 81 6, so strong had its society become. All Con- 
necticut, not excepting Litchfield County, which 
longest remained immune from infectious dissent 
and Republicanism, felt the effects of Methodism 
as a rival religious movement and as a quickener 
of the Congregational pulse. 82 

Congregational opposition to the Methodist 
movement has been noticed, though it is a phase 
of the religious struggle which merits oblivion, for 
its bickerings and sectarian jealousies were quite 
unworthy. However, one can readily appreciate 
the fear of staid, conservative leaders. Methodism 
even more than other sectarianism seemed a menace 
as a revolutionary movement closely associated 
with a political party, suspected and accused of 

82 The paragraph is written chiefly from the following: Goodwin, 
East Hartford, p. 145; Church, Address, p. 36; Dwight, Statistical Ac- 
count, p. 43; Barbour, New Haven, pp. 29-30; New Haven Historical 
Society, Papers, III, 163; Gold, Cornwall, p. 175; Caulkins, Norwich, 
p. 322; Field, Statistical Account, pp. 47-49; Anderson, Waterbury, 
pp. 693 ff.; Rev. Hollis Campbell, Seymour, p. 37; Noah A. Phelps, 
History of Simsbury, Granby, and Canton, p. 112; Goodenough, Clergy 
of Litchfield, p. 160. 



THE METHODIST-EPISCOPAL CHURCH 87 

plotting the destruction of both religion and the 
state. 83 To the minister of the Standing Order the 
untutored exhorter fresh from the shop or field 
was a demagogue ranting the Word of God. The 
Methodist ministry, if possible, was even more 
primitive than that in which the Baptist gloried. 84 
Their large, often unauthorized camp meetings 
were the source of much annoyance; for Connecti- 
cut was not in favor of anything but the most 
orderly, godly revival; and many a minister ques- 
tioned the propriety of any revival. That there 
were irregularities in connection with these camp 
meetings is not to be doubted, nor on the other 
hand is all the gossip to be credited. 85 Some of 
the criticism can be accounted for in that such 
meetings were an innovation and hence unwel- 
come. Robbins wrote: "The Methodists go great 
lengths in fanaticism. They hurt their own cause." 
Again he noted a "Methodist camp meeting — which 
was most outrageous" 86 The novelty finally wore 
off, for one finds the good old orthodox Hartford 
Courant advertising a camp meeting for Ellington 
in 1810. 87 Fearon in his travels noticed that the 
Methodists were generally despised as fanatics. 88 

83 Cf. Larned, Windham County, II, 282-284; and Barstow, New 
Hampshire, pp. 425, 443. 

84 Scudder, American Methodism, ch. rv; cf. North American Review, 
IX, 240-260. 

85 Dwight, Sermon (1801), p. 17; Gold, Cornwall, p. 72; Larned, 
Windham County, II, 333-334:; Church, Salisbury, p. 36; Scudder, 
American Methodism, pp. 465 ff. 

86 Diary, I, 90, 450. 

87 Aug. 15, 1810. 

88 Henry B. Fearon, Sketches of America, pp. 161 ff. 



88 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

William Tudor in his letter on religion considered 
their lack of respectability as due to their wan- 
dering, whining preachers with their calls for en- 
thusiasm so unsuited to the climate or likings of 
New England. 89 

In estimating the number of Methodists there 
is valuable material in the published minutes of 
the annual conferences of 1813 to 181 8, with re- 
ports from the various circuits. 90 The individual 
figures for the towns appear fairly trustworthy, 
though sectarian loyalty may have condoned the 
lack of scrupulous accuracy in the desire to demon- 
strate progress. The reports were neglectfully in- 
complete, for, all told, they accounted for only fifteen 
towns when there were certainly fifty-three socie- 
ties, large or small, within the state, or one to 
every four Congregational societies. 91 Even so, 
these figures enumerate something like 5,532 
white and 114 negro communicants. The inclusion 
of the negro is interesting as indicating the class 
in society to which an appeal was made. That 
these figures do not represent more than one-half 
of the Methodist total seems probable, for one 
must consider that dissenters could legally attend 
and support a church of their creed even if across 
the state line. This being the case, many Metho- 
dists no doubt worshipped in the chapels of the 
bordering states. 

As Methodists increased in numbers their oppo- 

89 Letters, p. 69. 

90 Yale Pamphlets, Vol. 1233. 

91 Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 32; Morse and Morse, Guide, p. 91. 






THE SMALLER RELIGIOUS BODIES 89 

sition to the Congregational order became more 
determined . Realizing that their hopes were bound 
up in the success of the reform party, they early 
followed their Baptist brethren into its ranks. 

5. The Smaller Religious Bodies 

Universalism appeared about 1792 when South- 
ington was said to be infected. The Universalists 
then organized a society. Canterbury was dis- 
turbed by a Universalist revolt when a small group 
organized themselves into the Independent Catholic 
Christian Society with a short tenure of life. Nor- 
wich was said to have a society in 1820. President 
D wight knew of only one Universalist body in 
1 8 10; and in 181 8 the Connecticut Gazetteer enum- 
erated but two bodies, one in Newtown and another 
in Somers. 92 

There were probably more Universalists, for 
towns like Middletown and Killingworth together 
had at least seventy families. In Windham County 
there were known to be twenty families, but no 
societies. 93 The settled clergy asked : Why should 
a Universalist be dependent upon a ministry? 
Naturally as tithe payers every Universalist was 
opposed to the religious constitution. As they 
were known to be democrats to a man, 94 no sec- 
tarian was more disliked by the Congregationalist 

92 Timlow, Southington, p. 311; Rev. Andrew Hetrick, Historical 
Address, p. 19; Caulkins, Norwich, p. 323; D wight, Travels, IV, 444; Pease 
and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 32. 

93 Field, Statistical Account; Lamed, Windham County, II, 391. 

94 Mercury, Jan. 21, 1817. 



90 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

who felt that, like the atheist, deist and Unitarian, 
a Universalist's oath should not be accepted, for 
it lacked the restraining fear of a future life. 

Unitarianism as a religious system first attracted 
notice about the beginning of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, when two clergymen were removed from their 
parishes for this heresy. 95 Rev. John Sherman, 
one of the men expelled, wrote in 1805 an apology 
in defense of his creed. In 1806 the Rev. Henry 
Channing, a believer in Unitarian doctrines, was 
dismissed at his own request from the pulpit of the 
New London society. As Unitarians were classed 
as deists and held guilty of a felony, their history 
was shrouded in darkness. 96 The orthodox esti- 
mate of the Unitarian was well summed up in the 
following: "The professed Deist gives Christianity 
fair play. If she cannot defend herself, let her 
fall. But the Unitarian Christian assassinates her 
in the dark." 97 Writers tabulating religious sta- 
tistics excluded Unitarians as of no importance. 
While the local Episcopalian historian may be 
justified in his belief that the Episcopalian fold 
proved the haven for those in Connecticut who 
sought escape from rigid Puritanism, just as the 
Massachusetts "intellectuals" found solace in Uni- 
tarianism, 98 yet the fact that Unitarianism never 
thrived in the state explains the united Congre- 
gationalism which stood so long against the reform 

95 Foster, Genetic History, p. 278; Caulkins, New London, p. 589; for 
sketch of Channing, Dexter, Biographical Sketches, IV, 183-186. 

96 Statutes, p. 296; see George H. Richards, Politics of Conn., p. 20. 

97 Rev. John Gardiner, Sermon (1811), p. 112. 

98 Beardsley, Episcopal Church, II, 98. 



THE SMALLER RELIGIOUS BODIES 91 

party." Unitarians like Universalists were ardent 
Tolerationists, Channing, one of their leaders, 
being active among the reformers. 

The Friends always remained few in numbers. 
After 1706, when the statutory laws against Quakers 
were repealed, they were no longer in bodily danger, 
yet this did not mean relief from persecution. In 
1729 they were granted toleration. 100 While it is 
probable that they generally met in private homes, 
there was a thriving society in New Milford as 
early as 1742. Groton in 1770 released some thirty- 
five Rogerene Quakers from the Congregational 
rates. Pomfret was the seat of a fairly large society. 
In 1818 there appear to have been some seven 
societies of Friends, one society of Rogerene 
Quakers and two small societies of Sandemanians, 
and one of Shakers. 101 

The Catholic church was not represented in 
Connecticut by either priest or chapel until late 
in the decade of 1820. 102 Its future strength was 
not even dimly foreshadowed. In 1816 the con- 
version of the Waterbury Congregational pastor, 

99 1 believe that the Republican party in Massachusetts was aided 
by the Unitarian revolt against Congregationalism. Unitarians with- 
out the pale of the law were necessarily ardent reformers, and while it 
is generally recognized that they deserve much credit for the dis- 
establishment of 1833-1834, their connection with early Republicanism 
and its success does not seem to be duly emphasized. 

100 Conn. Col. Records, IV, 546. VII, 237. 

101 Giddings, New Milford, p. 12; Caulkins, New London, p. 421; 
Lamed, Windham County, II, 284; Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 32. 

102 Dwight, Travels, IV, 444; Tudor, Letters, p. 69; Dr. James A. 
Rooney, "Early Times in the Diocese of Hartford, 1829-1874," in Cath. 
Hist. Review, July, 1915. 



92 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Rev. Virgil Horace Barber and family, offered a 
decidedly close parallel to the beginnings of the 
Anglican church a century earlier. An Episco- 
palian minister from Middletown and also one from 
Derby found their way toward Rome. However 
none of them appears to have remained within the 
state. 103 Still there were a few Catholics here and 
there, for the Rev. James Dana counted seven 
families in New Haven in 1800. 104 

The Jews of Connecticut had no formal organi- 
zation, nor is it probable that there were more than 
a few families. 105 At any rate none of the acts of 
toleration would have offered them relief. 

6. Common Grievances of Dissenters 

The common grievance of all dissenters and the 
great bond of union between them was the certifi- 
cate law. Around these certificates considerable 
persecution lurked. This was bound to be the 
case while the administration of the law and the 
granting of the licenses remained in the hands of 
justices who were invariably stanch upholders of 
the Standing Order. Being known as a certificate 
man placed one in a lower social category and in 
practice under a political disability The dissenter 
felt this and keenly resented the method of certi- 
fying as well as the narrow interpretation of the 

103 See Anderson, Waterbury, I, 660; E. S. Thomas, Reminiscences of 
Last Sixty-five Years, I, 23; Stiles, Diary, III, 416; Beardsley, Episcopal 
Church, II, 99-105. 

104 Dana, Two Discourses (1801), pp. 65 ff. Noah Webster mentions 
C in his diary hearing mass in ihe room of his class-mate, Father Thayer. 

Ford, Webster, I, 343. 

105 Dexter, New Haven in 1784, p. 55. 



GRIEVANCES OF DISSENTERS 93 

law, which so largely counteracted the legal toler- 
ance. In the case of a foreigner or citizen from 
another state, Leland thought the choice of com- 
pulsory certification or tithe-paying especially morti- 
fying. This matter of certificates occasioned in- 
cessant agitation embittered by a petty persecu- 
tion which united all dissenters in adherence to a 
sympathetic party which held out hopes of reform. 106 
The Standing Order must have found it difficult 
to understand the agitation over Congregational 
intolerance on seeing so many certificates issued 
on the most flimsy pretexts. For of the state's 
tolerance they continually boasted. Beecher wrote : 

There never was a more noble regard to the rights of con- 
science than was shown in Connecticut. Never was there a 
body of men that held the whole power that yielded to the 
rights of conscience more honorably. 107 

Taking exception to an observation of the Duke 
de la Rochefoucauld that Connecticut Presby- 
terianism was intolerant, Dwight maintained that 
even the irreligious were left in perfect harmony 
and that the Congregationalists had voluntarily 
placed all denominations on a footing with them- 
selves. 108 Certainly they were in advance of 
Massachusetts, but hardly of any other state, 109 

106 Swift, System of the Laws, I, 143 ff.; Greene, Religious Liberty, 
pp. 372-373. 

107 Autobiography, I, 342. 

108 Dwight, Travels, IV, 235; Rev. Benjamin Trumbull, Sermon 
(1801), p. 20; Governor Tread well, Address to the Assembly, C our ant, 
May 16, 1810. 

109 Vermont separated church and state in 1807, but New Hamp- 
shire had what amounted to an establishment until 1819. Laurer, 
Church and State, pp. 97 ff. ; Barstow, New Hampshire, p. 426. 



94 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

though it would be difficult to convince the dis- 
senter that toleration had been willingly conceded 
on purely Christian grounds. 

Dissenters found a strong motive for opposition 
in the religious bias of the whole school system. 110 
Education was completely dominated by the Con- 
gregationalist order. 

A decided cry for reform in the Yale corporation 
had resulted in a slight loosening of ministerial 
control without making it less sectarian; for the 
ex-officio state officers were closely connected by 
blood and social ties to the leading ministers. The 
Legislature's donation of forty thousand dollars in 
no way placated dissenters. As even Episcopalians 
were not desired on the faculty, one need not be 
surprised that less respectable dissenters were not 
so honored. Abraham Bishop drilled this point 
into the dissenter, as did other Republican leaders 
in their exhortations to their following. 111 George 
Richards in 1817 declared that there was a rigid 
Saybrook-Congregational test for college officers. 112 
This is well outlined by Ezra Stiles in 1782 in an 
account of the examination to which a prospective 
instructor submitted. 113 It is scarcely likely that 

110 There is a sketch of the school system in Swift, System of the Lam, 
I, 148 ff. Bernard C. Steiner, The History of Education in Connecticut 
is the standard authority on the state's schools. 

111 Bishop, Address (1802), p. 48; Mercury, Aug. 1, 1805; Apr. 2, 
1816. 

112 Richards, Politics of Conn., p. 24. See Niles' Register, XIII, 194. 
Governor Baldwin is inclined to overlook this. New Haven Hist. Soc. 
Papers, III, 425. 

111 Diary, III, 21. 



GRIEVANCES OF DISSENTERS 95 

the practical bar had been in any way removed at 
a time when all efforts of the Standing Order were 
bent toward strengthening their redoubts. This 
test was abrogated in 1823 on the very eve of the 
chartering of the Episcopalian college. 114 Even 
the Yale course of studies together with certain 
compulsory religious services was likely to deprive 
the conscientious dissenter of an education. 

The lower schools were essentially Congrega- 
tional parochial schools. 115 Prior to a law of 1798, 
which delegated school affairs to a board of local 
officers and ministers, complete control of the 
town schools was vested in the Congregational 
society. The minister was apt to consider edu- 
cation as under his special care, examining teachers 
in their behavior, morals, and religious tenets. 
Exciting local collisions resulted at times in dis- 
senting strongholds because the board of over- 
seers exerted an ' 'unwarranted interference with 
the religious opinions of teachers." 116 Apparently 
more attention was paid to the ''moral" side of 
the teacher than to his preparation ; for it is hardly 
conceivable that men who taught during the three 
winter months at a wage of from seven to twelve 
dollars a month, or women teachers during the 
summer months at a dollar a week, could be per- 

114 New Haven Hist. Soc, Papers, III, 435; Steiner, Education in Conn., 
p. 239; but see Andrew D. White, Autobiography, II, 557. 

115 Bates, Records of . . School District of Granby, pp. 6, 7, 11; 
Hughes, East Haven, p. 52; Atwater, Plymouth, p. 125; Roys, Norfolk, 
p. 12; Timlow, Southington, p. 433; Robbins, Diary, I, 647. See Mer- 
cury, Mar. 5, 1816. 

ns Church, Salisbury, p. 39. 



96 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

sons possessing other than the most elementary 
training. 

Republicans were not far wrong in their con- 
tention that teachers must be orthodox in religion 
and politics. Primary schools opened with prayer 
and the reading of Scripture. Saturday after- 
noon was devoted to teaching the Congregational 
catechism, which was included in the New Eng- 
land primer. Sometimes dissenting children were 
freed from attendance, but not without consider- 
able formality. In at least a couple of instances 
dissenting bodies were even given their quota of 
the school funds for parochial schools or given an 
opportunity to teach their own doctrines to their 
children attendant at the "Congregational, public 
school." 117 Not until 1818 did the Congregational- 
ists find it necessary to establish Sunday schools, 
and then only because it was necessary to modify 
the teaching of the catechism and morals in the 
common schools to satisfy the dissenters and to 
accord with the new order. 

Thus did schismatic and dissenter increase. 
The rigors of Calvinism drove some to take refuge 
in the emotional religions, others in the mystic, 
and still others in the liturgical church. Re- 
ligion and church-going could not be maintained 
by inquisitional means or by the tithe-gatherer. 
Yet from the viewpoint of the orthodox there was 
something saddening in the bickerings and the 
factiousness which resulted when the town church 
was disturbed by the opposing denominations, 

117 Atwater, Plymouth, p. 125; Allen, Enfield, I, 476. 




Ecclesiastical Map- 1818 

Numbe" of Churches or Societies in Towns indicated 



o 

<* ~ j 

r> (* < 



Baptist o 

Mjthodist • 

Ep sco pal i an t 

Iruependent, Separatist X 

Quakers, Shakers © 

v L)nversalists , Sandemanians and all others .A. 

Number of Congregational Churches or Societies indicated by figures 



J 



GRIEVANCES OF DISSENTERS 97 

and when the town meeting-house had given place 
to a cluster of rival meeting-houses. 

The ecclesiastical map of Connecticut in 1818 
speaks volumes. It shows that every section of 
the commonwealth was invaded, that there was 
scarcely a town without its diverse denominational 
societies. Dissent could not be said to be sectional, 
though the river towns and those bordering New 
York and Rhode Island might be described as 
centers. The chief value of such a chart is in dem- 
onstrating that dissent was politically Republican. 
By closely comparing this chart with those showing 
the political strength of the Republican party by 
towns, it will be seen that in those towns in which 
dissent flourished, Republicanism advanced until 
it became the dominant political factor. 



CHAPTER III 
i. Banks and the Increase of Capital 

HP HE industrial life of the state was transformed 
* during the period covered by this study. 
Banks were established, introducing a new system 
of credit. Monetary capital increased as a result of 
high prices, large exports, and a thriving carry- 
ing trade. Capital seeking investment found rich 
opportunities in the manufacturing concerns which 
were building factories in every section. As manu- 
facturing became important, there developed town 
and city life, with their characteristic laboring 
class and problems. These changes are to be 
considered in this chapter. 

Money throughout the colonial days and the 
early years of the new state was scarce. Payment 
for imports so drained the market of specie that 
barter remained a usual form of business even in 
large towns. Salaries such as those of ministers 
were paid, frequently partly in cash and partly 
in goods. Wages were paid in kind or in bills of 
credit on the country store. As the state was 
agricultural and its farmers were small free-holders, 
there were few men of wealth. Only rarely was 
there a man like Richard Alsop who amassed a 
fortune in the coast or West- India trade. 1 On 
the whole the country merchant was the financier 

1 Field, Centennial Address, p. 153; see Edward B. Eaton, "Hartford, 
the Stronghold of Insurance," Conn. Mag., EX, 617. 

98 



BANKS AND THE INCREASE OF CAPITAL 99 

of his locality, acting in the capacity of a broker 
either by extending credit in the way of time or 
by direct loans. This phase of his business was 
as important as, and probably morep^emunerative 
than his more obvious work of exchanging West- 
India and foreign goods for the farmers' grain, 
meat, and vegetables. 2 As banking houses were 
unknown, there was no one to whom a man de- 
sirous of undertaking a shipping or manufactur- 
ing business could apply. It was this lack of 
available capital, quite as much as the restrictive 
measures, which hindered the industrial growth of 
the colony. Otherwise, factories should have fol- 
lowed political independence instead of coming 
a generation later in the wake of banks and modern 
methods of credit. 

In 1 79 1 the enactment of Hamilton's financial 
plan secured the national rating on foreign ex- 
changes and centralized American banking around 
the National Bank. Then the outbreak of the 
European wars cut off foreign loans. Imports 
I were less and the drain on specie was correspond- 
ingly light. Exports finding a ready foreign market 
balanced the import debt or brought in specie. 
The carrying and West- India trade became sources 
of great wealth. As a result, the stock of ready 
money was tremendously increased. Banks were 
established and utilized conveniently as agents 
between creditor and undertaker. The commu- 
nity was benefited industrially; the banks became 

2 Church, Address, pp. 44-45. 



100 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

prosperous and hence more numerous. Thus the 
endless chain worked. 

Banks were essentially democratic in character, 
making it possible for poor men to concentrate their 
capital in such a way that it became productive. 
This was exactly what a people like those of Con- 
necticut required: some way in which their scat- 
tered small stocks might be effectively massed so 
as to be available for industry. 

The state was first aroused to the importance of 
banking in May, 1792, when the Hartford Bank 
and the Union Bank at New London were in- 
corporated. The Hartford Bank was originally 
capitalized at $100,000; but a supplementary act 
in 1807 provided that its capitalization could be 
increased by an open annual subscription of $50,000, 
until a limit of $500,000 was reached. By 181 8 
its capital had mounted to the million mark. s 
The Union Bank was chartered at fom $50,000 to 
$100,000, standing at the latter figure in 1818. 4 
The New Haven Bank followed in October, 1795, 
with a charter allowing a minimum capital of $50,- 
000 with the $400,000 provision. The doors opened 
for public business in 1796 with a paid in sub- 
scription of $80,000; and by 181 8, its capital had 
increased to $300,ooo. 5 In October, 1795, the 

3 Statutes, pp. 73 ff.; Courant, Jan. 23, Mar. 11, 1792; Ford, Webster, 
I, 342, 354, 356, 526; Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 50; P. H. Woodward, 
One Hundred Years of the Hartford Bank, the first six chapters, but 
especially pp. 15-20, 79-89. 

* Statutes, pp. 93-95; Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 114. 

6 Statutes, pp. 82-86; Barber, New Haven, p. 55; Pease and Niles, 
Gazetteer, p. 107. 



BANKS AND THE INCREASE OF CAPITAL 101 

Middletown Bank was incorporated with a capital 
of $100,000. It was granted the privilege of in- 
creasing its stock to $400,000, though apparently 
it did not open until 1801. By 18 12 its success 
warranted the increase of its capitalization to 
$500, 000. 6 

The General Assembly in May, 1796, chartered 
the Norwich Bank with a capitalization of from 
$75,000 to $200,000, the latter figure being reached 
about 18 1 2. 7 In October, 1806, the Bridgeport 
Bank was incorporated with a capital of from 
$50,000 to $200,ooo. 8 By an act of May, 1807, 
the New London Bank was authorized with a 
capitalization of from $200,000 to $500,000. 9 In 
October, 1809, the Derby Bank was chartered at 
$100,000 with the privilege of an increase up to 
$200,000. Apparently, in order to avoid too ob- 
\ vious an interlocking directorate, it was enjoined 
I that none of its directors be from the board of the 
J Derby Fishing Company, though that company 
y was afterward allowed to hold a small limited 
; amount of stock. 10 In January, 1812, the Eagle 
I Bank of New Haven, incorporated the previous 
1 fall at from $500,000 to $750,000, inaugurated its 
I ill-fated, irresponsible business career. 11 In 18 14 

6 Statutes, pp. 79-82; Brainerd, Middletown, p. 6; Field, Statistical 
Account, p. 41. 

''Statutes, pp. 90-92; Caulkins, Norwich, p. 331; Pease and Niles, 
Gazetteer, p. 148. 

8 Statutes, pp. 70-73; Orcutt, Stratford, I, 597. 

9 Statutes, pp. 86-89; Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 144. 

10 Public Laws, pp. 17-21, 109; Mercury, Nov. 9, 1809. 

11 Public Laws, pp. 65-69; Pease and Nibs, Gazetteer, p. 107; Barber, 
\ New Haven, p. 55; New Haven Hist. Soc, Papers, III, 176; Courant, 
' Nov. 6, 13, Dec. 25, 1811; Woodward, Hartford Bank, p. 129. 



102 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

the Episcopalians founded the million-dollar Phoenix 
Bank, with headquarters at Hartford and a semi- 
independent branch at Litchfield. 12 When the 
Second United States Bank was established, it 
was decided to locate one of its twelve branches 
at Middletown. To such an out-of-the-way lo- 
cation there was considerable opposition, espe- 
cially on the part of New Haven. 13 The deter- 
mining factor with the administration was prob- 
ably Middletown's Republican vote. 

To summarize: in the beginning of the year, 
1792, a Connecticut bank was unknown; in 181 8 
there were ten state banks, besides the branch 
of the National Bank, with a capitalization of 
from $3,000,000 to $3,500,ooo. 14 This was an 
astonishing transformation. Here was plenty of 
money for investment in internal trade, in turn- 
pike companies, factories, and in western lands. 

The bank charters had all the appearances of 
being democratic in character and essentially 
public-serving in purpose. This was to be ex- 
pected, for banking petitions had to be sanctioned 
by the Legislature. In time, certainly after 1800, 
the banking acts became less democratic. 15 Shares 
of stock fluctuated from $100 to $400; and there 
was no longer a limitation to the number of 

12 Public Laws, pp. 148-153; Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 50; Hart, 
Episcopal Bank, pp. 104 ff. 

13 Field, Statistical Account, p. 41; Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 274; 
Courant, Nov. 21, 1816; Aug. 12, 1817; New Haven Resolutions (1816). 

14 Warden, Statistical Account, II, 30, accurately gave the number 
of banks as eleven with a capital of $3,500,000. 

15 Statutes, pp. 74, 78, 82, 85-86. 



BANKS AND THE INCREASE OF CAPITAL 103 

shares a person or a corporation could hold. This 
provision had also been struck out of the old 
charters on their revision. No longer was six 
per-cent interest on loans defined as the maximum. 
Clauses giving an advantage in the corporation 
management to small over against large share- 
holders were modified so that voting strength de- 
pended on the number of shares. Subscriptions 
were open to all investors. As, however, the 
managers of the lists were selected by the Legislature 
from the promoters, and as bank stock was re- 
garded as gilt-edged and a rising investment, 16 
there was no doubt favoritism. 

This charge was well substantiated in the case 
of the Phoenix Bank, in which friendly members 
of the General Assembly were fortunate in drawing 
shares, while others were said to be invariably 
unsuccessful. The defenders pointed out that, as 
there were seven applicants for every one of the 
10,000 shares, all could not be served. Further- 
more, they argued that the opposition came from 
the banking interests, which were afraid of com- 
petition. 17 Bank stock was rapidly becoming a 
choice investment for men of money rather than 
an advantageous pool for the savings of farmer 
and mechanic. This was the more true inasmuch 
as bank stock was not even listed for taxation 



16 Bank stock paid 7 or 8% after 1804, and 9±% by 1813, though 
United States Bank stock was bearing only 3 to 6%. Henry F. Wal- 
radt, Financial History of Connecticut, pp. 34-35. 

17 For an account of the Phoenix scandal, see Courant, Sept. 13, 
1814; Six Numbers on Banking, p. 15; Hart, Episcopal Bank. 



104 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

until 1805; and stock owned by non-residents 
was not taxed for another eight years. 18 Is it 
to be wondered at that men questioned this 
partiality? 

If one may draw a conclusion from the recrimi- 
nations in the Phoenix Bank episode, stock seldom 
found its way into the hands of what came to be 
the wealthy banking circle, save those shares which 
were used to gain legislative favor. From the 
beginning, it might be pointed out, the directors 
and promoters were men of large property. They 
either were or soon became political leaders or 
bosses, though the latter term may be objectionable. 

Among the leaders of the Hartford Bank were 
Oliver Ellsworth, Oliver Phelps, Colonel Jeremiah 
Wadsworth, John Morgan, John Caldwell, Ephraim 
Root, Nathaniel Terry, and Andrew Kingsbury. 
Ellsworth was a framer of the Constitution, long 
a judge of the state superior court, later Chief 
Justice of the United States Supreme Court, 
Minister to France in 1799, and an associate of 
Robert Morris and Alexander Hamilton. 19 Phelps 
was a millionaire land speculator. Colonel Wads- 
worth, a commissary -general during the Revolu- 
tion, at its close was estimated to be worth from 
60,000 to 80,000 pounds sterling. He was the 
largest subscriber to the Bank of North America, 
and in 1785 was elected president of the Bank of 

18 Walradt, Financial History, pp. 28-29. 

19 Mercury, Sept. 5, 1805; Conn. Mag., IX, 891 ff.; Pease and Niles, 
Gazetteer, p. 92; Woodward, Hartford Bank, pp. 40-42. For Phelps, 
see ibid., pp. 47, 71 Q. 



BANKS AND THE INCREASE OF CAPITAL 105 

New York, and later a director of the National 
Bank and a silent partner in a large shipping 
business. For several years he was a member of 
Congress and long a member of the Council. 20 
Morgan, Caldwell, and Terry, the latter a son-in- 
law of Wadsworth, were men of means, munici- 
pal office-holders and for years Hartford's repre- 
sentatives in the General Assembly. 21 Root was a 
prominent lawyer, and Kingsbury was known as 
state treasurer and for his prominence in church 
missions. 22 Jedediah Huntington, president of the 
Union Bank, was of a prominent family in church 
and state. Joseph Alsop was a controlling figure 
in the Middletown Bank. The New Haven Bank 
was fathered by men like David Austin, Elias 
Shipman, and Isaac Beers, Federalist leaders of 
New Haven, though later Abraham Bishop, the 
wealthy Republican boss, was included in its 
directorate. The Derby Bank had among its 
leading spirits William Leffingwell, David Daggett, 
and a stand-pat Federalist Assistant, Charles 
Sherman of the well-known family. David Tomlin- 
son, the Tolerationist, was added when he became 
influential enough to win a place in the Council. 

20 Conn. Mag., IX, 891; Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, pp. 51-52; Wood- 
ward, Hartford Bank, pp. 31-34. 

21 Woodward, op. cit., pp. 34-35; Dexter, Biographical Sketches, IV, 
514. 

22 Dexter, Biographical Sketches, IV, 234; Woodward, Hartford Bank, 
pp. 40, 65. Lists of directors are available in the incorporation acts 
and in the annual Almanack and Register, which gives lists of office 
holders, of clergy, of church and fraternal societies. A comparison 
of these lists gives a clear insight into the control by the ruling class. 



106 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

The Eagle Bank had a select directorate: Senator 
James Hillhouse, Theodore Dwight, Simeon Bald- 
win, Frederick Wolcott, Speaker Sylvanus Backus, 
Roger M. Sherman, President Timothy Dwight, 
Abraham Bradley and the Episcopalian politician, 
Charles Denison. 

A stronger combination in church and state or a 
group of more confirmed office-holders would be 
difficult to pick. The New London Bank nearly 
did so, when it could point out Elisha Denison, 
Edward Chappell, Zephaniah Swift, Roger Good- 
rich, Elias Perkins, a Republican leader, and Calvin 
Goddard, all of whom had graced the Council 
chamber or were represented in that body by their 
immediate family. Ebenezer Huntington and Asa 
Fitch of the Norwich Bank were men of wealth 
and prestige. As the Phoenix Bank was essentially 
a Republican and Episcopalian bank, its directors 
were chiefly from among the wealthy members of 
the Toleration party. Its stockholders were headed 
by such men as Jonathan Edwards, who invested 
$90,000, no mean sum for a man of his lineage; 
Samuel Pitkin, $20,000; S. Griswold, $20,000; Eli 
Haskell, $30,000; and Roswell Moor, $20,ooo. 2a 
Even these amounts demonstrated growing wealth, 
for $6,000 had been the largest subscription to the 
Hartford Bank. 

This is quite enough to make clear that an in- 
fluential moneyed class was evolving, with its 
stronghold in the banking interests of the com- 

23 Courant, Sept. 13, 1814. 



BANKS AND THE INCREASE OF CAPITAL 107 

munity and in the Federal-Congregational party. 
Yet neither the party nor the sect was the all-control- 
ling element, for an Episcopalian or Republican, 
who came into political power, was given place 
on a bank's directorate. The essential Federalist- 
Congregational character of the "bank crowd" 
was well evidenced by the opposition to the in- 
corporation of the Episcopal Bank, as a rival of 
the Hartford Bank which, like the Hartford 
Courant, breathed an orthodoxy of the olden day. 
In spite of all opposition the Phoenix Bank was 
established; and an entering wedge was driven 
in between the banking business and the Standing 
Order. 

The connection between the state and the banks 
was made closer by an act of 1803, which pro- 
vided for the investment of state funds in the 
New Haven, Hartford, and Middletown banks. On 
subscribing $5,000 or more, the state was given 
the privilege of naming a director. In 1803 
$42,525 was so invested and by 1816, $146,800. 
In 1815 the treasurer was authorized to buy 
United States stock and invest the surplus in the 
stock of any state bank. Thereupon the state 
became a stockholder in the Eagle and Phoenix 
banks. In 1817 a surplus of $250,000 was in- 
vested in the five banks. 24 This must be borne 
in mind, for the association of the administration 
and the money interests gave the office-holding 
party a powerful lever. 

24 Statutes, pp. 70, 77, 96; Walradt, Financial History, pp. 33-34; 
Woodward, Hartford Bank, pp. 81-82. 



108 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

The later banking acts gave certain decided 
advantages to the ecclesiastical societies. The 
trustees of school funds, ecclesiastical funds and 
charitable institutions within the state were given 
privileges equal to those accorded the state; such 
privileges involved the right to buy stock at par 
value, to withdraw on six months' notice and to 
name a director if owning a certain amount of 
stock. This stock could not be transferred and 
was also of an issue above the bank's maximum 
capitalization. In addition such organizations 
could buy common, transferable stock. The ec- 
clesiastical funds, aside from the Bishop's Fund, 
were those of Congregational societies, for the 
dissenting societies had little money to invest. 
Like the schools, the educational funds were con- 
trolled by the Congregational order. Remember- 
ing that incorporation acts were based on petition 
and sanctioned with modifications rather than 
drafted by the Assembly, one may ask: why should 
banking promoters grant so much in the way of 
privileges to the standing church? Friends might 
explain it on grounds of philanthropy; more im- 
partial critics as a means of obtaining the valuable 
asset of its political influence. 

The years after the second war were marked by 
intense financial distress. Specie was being hoarded 
or exported to pay for foreign goods. There was 
a return to barter, if one may judge from news- 
paper advertisements. Money, it was said, was 
becoming a circulating medium in name only. 
Some blamed the banks for the financial panic, 



BANKS AND THE INCREASE OF CAPITAL 109 

saying that banks were synonymous with bank- 
ruptcy. New York banks were failing or refus- 
ing to loan or discount, thereby aggravating 
the banking difficulties of Connecticut. Of the 
four banks in the vicinity of New Haven, the 
Derby Bank had dissolved with little regard for 
its clients; a second practically halted business; a 
third diminished its loans by one-half; and the 
fourth greatly reduced its discounts. In all a 
million dollars was thought to have been with- 
drawn from circulation, either because of fear or 
speculation. 25 Farmers and mechanics found them- 
selves in sore straits and all business was at a 
standstill. 

Small wonder was it that banks and their direc- 
tors were subjected to bitter attack. 26 Even an 
occasional Federalist writer deprecated the growth 
of a moneyed class as the most unfeeling and 
oppressive of all aristocracies. 27 Only lawyers and 
bankers grew rich, it was argued, while the poor 
were made poorer. Banks were accused of mak- 
ing money plentiful or scarce as best suited their 
purpose. The money lender or "note-shaver" was 
described as preying on society in distress and en- 
riching himself by buying at a heavy discount 
farms, manufacturing plants, and merchandise. By 

26 Six Numbers on Banking, pp. 4 ff . 

™Ibid; Mercury, June 18, 1816; Feb. 11, 17, 1817. 

27 Courant, Aug. 12, 1817. The editor was inclined to view the de- 
pression as due to drinking, the failure to honor honest labor, a specu- 
lating mania, a departure from the old habit of living within income, 
and the weakening of the evangelical virtues. Series of articles, Mar. 
4, 1817, ff. 



110 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

their manoeuvers, first flooding the market with 
paper then contracting the currency, they were 
thought to work their purpose. In the past men 
of wealth had ready money to loan and, if a man 
hoarded, it made little difference. Now, it was 
added, the man of wealth has his money invested 
in bank stock or on deposit. To get a loan, the 
borrower must solicit the "rigidly surly, vehemently 
authoritative, and fretfully great" bank director. 28 
If one bank hoards, all refuse to discount. Pains 
were taken to impress on readers that bank charters 
were often dishonestly obtained; that directors 
were frequently borrowers from their own banks 
to the extent of from $15,000 to $50,000; that the 
Eagle Bank had forced its stock down to 90 in 
order to buy it in; and that there had been corrupt 
bank failures. 29 Banks were not original creators 
of wealth, but only creatures of business and com- 
merce. Hence they were not to be rated too 
highly, nor were their lawyer-directors to be re- 
garded as essentially men of honor. Banks were 
especially attacked for buying up the Second 
National Bank stock, a speculation pure and sim- 
ple, for bank stock paid more than the customary 
six per cent. Money was, it was felt, drawn from 
local circulation, while the people were silenced 
by the bankers' pretense of patriotic motives. 
The criticism was not surprising, with United 
States bonds rising, and bank shares increasing 



28 Six Numbers on Banking, p, 15. 
"Ibid., pp. 5-8, 15-17. 



BASKS AND THE INCREASE OF CAPITAL 

in value, and bankers apparently suffering leas than 
the business community at large. 30 

This depression was turned by local Republicans 

into a political asset. In 1816 they condemned 
the governor's neutral speech as not what the 
people anticipated with a six months' winter fac- 
ing them,' 1 and they attacked the purchase by 
state banks of National Bank stock. Their char 
lost weight when, in the fall of 18 18, Governor 
Wolcott was able to point toward coming prosperity 
ushered in by the more substantial national bank- 
ing system. Politically the depression benefited the 
Republicans. 

Closely associated with the banks both in p 
of time and in the personnel of their governing 
boards were the insurance companies. Sanford 
and Wads worth opened an insurance office in Hart- 
ford in 1794.' 2 A firm known as the Hartford and 
New Haven Insurance Company, with a life of 
three years, started to insure on ships and no 
chandise the following year. John Caldwell. John 
Morgan, Wadsworth, Shipman. and Sanford were 
its leaders. In 1795 the Mutual Assuranc. 

« : ,',., Papers, III, 201 fir. 

« Mercury, Oct. 22, IS 16. 

* This sketch of Hartford insurance companies down to the 
1 fishment of the Aetna in 181 :he following: Statutes, pp. 

1 407, 410, 416, 419; Public Lavs, pp. 25, 113, 131; Pease and I 
Gazetteer, p. 30; Caulkir. ■>., p. 331; Field, Statistical Account, 

p. 41; George L. Clark, History of Connecticut, pp. ':. -rest 

i-an, Connectictu :ny and State, IV. 2: " 

Betts. "Development of Connecticut Insurance," Conn. Afag., VII, 
4 ft.; Woodward, ff« -nd Woodward. I 

in Connecticut. 



112 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

pany of Norwich was founded. Two years later 
the New Haven Marine Insurance Company was 
incorporated with a capital of $50,000. The 
Norwich Marine Insurance Company was char- 
tered in May, 1803, with a capital of $50,000 and 
the privilege of increasing to $100,000. In 1803 
John Caldwell, Jonathan Brace and Ephraim Root 
founded the Middletown Marine Insurance Com- 
pany with $60,000 capital, to be increased to a 
maximum of $150,000. At the same time the 
Middletown Marine Insurance Company was es- 
tablished with a capital of from $60,000 to $100,000. 
In 1805 the Union Insurance Company of New 
London was given a charter with a capitalization 
of from $100,000 to $150,000. These were fol- 
lowed by the fire insurance companies, the Hartford 
Company being chartered in 18 10 with a capital 
of $150,000, with the $250,000 limit. Among its 
directors were men like Nathaniel Terry, Nathaniel 
Patten, Thomas K. Brace, Henry Hudson and 
Daniel Wadsworth. The New Haven Company 
followed in 1813, with a capital of $200,000. Isaac 
Tomlinson, Titus Street and John Nicoll were among 
its trustees. Ebenezer and Jonathan Huntington, 
Elijah Hubbard, Joseph Alsop, and John R. Wat- 
kinson also procured a charter in this session for 
the Middletown Company with a capital of from 
$150,000 to $300,000. 

This array of names and figures is appalling. 
It is, however, the only way to impress the reader 
with the vast change in Connecticut's financial life 
in this brief period and with the growth of a rather 



SHIPPING AND CARRYING TRADE 113 

limited capitalist class. It is not too much to say 
that the banking, marine and fire insurance com- 
panies were controlled by the same men. Nor 
is it a bold generalization to add that the status 
quo eminently satisfied this group. 

2. Shipping and Carrying Trade 

The impetus given the shipping business by the 
foreign wars and the opening of the West Indies to 
neutrals accounted in large part for the increase 
in wealth after 1789. Prior to this there had been 
little gain in shipping or commerce because of the 
inability to cope with foreign competition. 33 Con- 
necticut thrived under this stimulus; the Con- 
necticut Valley and Sound towns became the centers 
of a prosperous trade. Tonnage increased; agri- 
culture was encouraged ; and money became plenti- 
ful, for profits were large despite seizures and ad- 
miralty decisions. Men were convinced that the 
state's future wealth lay bound up in shipping, 
the sister industry of agriculture. 

Connecticut schooners carried cider, butter, 
cheese, spirits, tinware, clocks, plows, and wagons 
to the South, especially to the port of Charleston. 
A few ships cleared direct for Europe from New 
London or New Haven with cargoes of grain, 
though this export business was generally done 
through New York. Numerous small vessels plied 
their trade with the West Indies, bringing cargoes 

38 William B. Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, 
II, 757, 772, 828, 833. 



114 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

of grain, butter, meat, vegetables, tobacco, cattle, 
horses and lumber from the northern states and 
returning with sugar and molasses to be made into 
rum. Never in the commonwealth's history had 
there been such a lucrative trade. 34 An occasional 
ship found its way to the East Indies in the wake of 
John Morgan's Empress of China which in 1785 
inaugurated American trade in Chinese waters. 35 
New Haven before the century's end had a South 
Sea fleet of twenty vessels, one of which, the 
Neptune, had circumnavigated the globe in a three- 
year cruise and brought back a cargo of tea, silk, 
and chinaware which netted profits of $24.o,ooo. 36 

In 1800 ship-builders from the Kennebec to the 
Hudson were laying more keels, it was reported, 
than ever before in a season. New Haven's three 
yards had built so rapidly that by this date the 
town had fully eleven thousand tons of shipping. 
Farmers were urged to increase their acreage and 
plant larger crops and raise more stock. As Gov- 
ernor Trumbull cautioned, the peace of Amiens 
caused a marked decline, but, fortunately for Con- 
necticut shipping, it proved but a time-serving 
truce. 37 

In 1807 the Derby Fishing Company was or- 
ganized with a capitalization of $200,000, held by 

34 Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 13; Field, Haddam, p. 9; Caulkins, 
Norwich, pp. 307-308; Morse, Geography, p. 156; Courant, Jan. 28, 1817; 
Warden, Statistical Account, II, 29; Woodward, Hartford Bank, p. 26; 
Woodward, Insurance, pp. 3-5. 

,5 Woodward, Hartford Bank, p. 26. 

86 Levermore, Government of New Haven, p. 24. 

"Ibid.; Mercury, Mar. 20, 1800; May 26, 1803. 



SHIPPING AND CARRYING TRADE 115 

Derby and New Haven people. This company 
owned several good ships which engaged in the 
Newfoundland fisheries and in carrying to Europe 
and the West Indies. For a time its success was 
astounding, but it soon floundered under the spell of 
evil days. 38 New Haven, on the eve of the Non- 
Intercourse acts, was a busy shipping center, as 
many as a hundred foreign bound vessels annually 
leaving its wharves. Duties on imports averaged 
about $150,000. Its Long Wharf was lined by ship- 
ping offices, rope- walks and commercial houses. 
Few were its citizens not directly or indirectly 
dependent on commerce. New London did a busi- 
ness not less important. 39 

Non- Intercourse and Embargo dealt hard blows 
to Connecticut shipping. Republicans suffered 
silently and patriotically, or loyally condoned the 
measures taken by the national administration. 
The Federalists, however, continually became more 
bitter in their opposition, and vigorous in their 
protests. Some saw a studied attempt to ruin New 
England's maritime wealth, with the intention 
of developing Republican sections of the coun- 
try; others feared that in encouraging manufac- 
ture there would arise a capitalist class. The 
Connecticut Courant saw no need for the "dam- 
bargo," the avowed purpose of which was the pre- 
vention of a foreign power's impressing ' 'foreign 
subjects, deserters, and renegades — Men who are 

88 New Haven Hist. Soc, Papers, III, 175 ff. 

"Ibid., I, 97 ff. Ill, 162 ff.; Dwight, Statistical Account, pp. 54 ff.; 
Starr, New London, p. 70. 




116 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 



never wanted on board American vessels; and 
who are taking the bread from the mouths of the 
native American seamen." The Declaration of 
Independence, it was recalled, had complained 
of the cutting off of our trade with the rest of the 
world. Yet the embargo was far worse — "the 
little finger of Thomas Jefferson is heavier than 
the loins of George the Third." 40 

Shipping was detained in the harbors, for even the 
coasting trade was stringently regulated. Where- 
as England blockaded France with squadrons and 
France blockaded England by decrees, America's 
plan of embargoing itself was regarded as the most 
ludicrous as well as the most effective. New 
Haven alone had seventy-eight vessels embargoed 
in 1808. 41 State exports fell from $1,625,000 in 
1807 to $414,000 in 1808, rising to $769,000 in 
1 8 10. Duties in the four collection districts fell 
off similarly: New London, in 1807, paid into the 
national treasury about $203,000, in 1808, $98,000 
and in 18 10 only $23,000; New Haven fell from 
$158,000 in 1807 to $56,000 in 1809; Middletown 
from $85,000 in 1807 to $49,000 in 18 10; and Fair- 
field from $21,000 in 1807 to only $2,000 in 1809. 42 

Naturally there was distress and widespread 
complaint. Farmers saw their markets cut off; 
merchants were in despair ; sailors and shipwrights 

*° See articles, "Farewell to the Ocean," "The Times," Courant, 
Apr. 27, May 11, 1808; Jan. 13, May 4, 1808. 

41 Levermore, Government of New Haven, p. 26; New Haven Hist. 
Soc, Papers, III, 167. 

42 New Haven Address to the President of the Bank of the U. S., pp. 
12-16, 43, 44. 



SHIPPING AND CARRYING TRADE 117 

were idle; rope-walks were for sale. Grass was 
growing on the wharves, honest sailors were driven 
to clam-digging, sea-faring men were emigrating 
to Canada. Canada, some feared, was being sent 
a half-century ahead. Yet it is doubtful if the 
situation was as depressing as Federalist memorial- 
ists would have the President believe. 43 At any 
rate the New Haven Manifesto, which was sent 
around to the various towns, found responsive 
accord only in Derby, Danbury and Lyme, and 
a less hearty support in Meriden. 44 Obviously 
the state could not have been on the verge of ruin. 
The Embargo and Non- Intercourse acts were 
hardly raised when war was declared. Ships fell 
prey to British privateers. Carrying trade gave 
way to the hazardous, but more profitable priva- 
teering. Peace came, but brought no relief. Only 

i the coast trader could face British competition. 
Europe no longer depended on neutral carriers. 
The West- India trade was lost to America for a 

t considerable period. No state suffered greater 
injury than Connecticut. New Haven's Long 
Wharf, which best represented the state's com- 
mercial greatness, followed the Union Wharf into 
a speedy decline. Marine insurance concerns failed. 
The Derby Fishing Company, the largest shipping 
concern, went bankrupt because of losses at sea by 
seizures, and because of the decline of business. 45 

43 Courant, Jan. 13, Aug. 31, Dec. 28, 1808; May 9, 1810. For a 
less sombre, more patriotic view, see Mercury, May 26, Sept. 8, 15, 1808. 

"Infra, p. 000. 

45 Caulkins, Norwich, pp. 309, 330; Starr, New London, p. 70; Field, 
Haddam, p. 9; Woodward, Hartford Bank, pp. 34-35; New Haven Hist. 
j Soc, Papers, I, 97-99. Ill, 175. 



118 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

These failures ushered in the hard times which 
were aggravated by speculative ship-building in 
1815. 46 Governor Smith in 1816 sorrowfully re- 
ported that foreign ships were driving Connecticut 
vessels into dry-dock even when it came to carry- 
ing domestic products. 47 

Governor Smith blamed the convention with 
England, by which duties imposed on domestic 
and foreign tonnage were equalized. He would 
return to the earlier discriminating duties which 
so benefited American interests, arguing that the 
extension of the merchant marine should ever be 
a favorite national policy. 48 He clearly repre- 
sented the old interests and old capital of the state ; 
but no number of Federalist memorials to Con- 
gress could prevent the change. A new era was 
ushering in manufactures as the chief pillar of the 
state's wealth. 

46 While tonnage statistics are unreliable, the following will show 
the obstinacy with which shipping men clung to their belief in the state's 
future on the sea. Middlesex County alone launched 7,500 tons in 
1815. Figures for the state follow: 

tons 

1800 32,867 

1811 45,000 

1815 50,358 

1816 60,104 

1818 60,000 

Field, Statistical Account, pp. 17, 128; Morse and Morse, Guide, p. 
91; Morse, Geography, p. 166; Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 14; Warden, 
Statistical Account, II, 29; Caulkins, Norwich, p. 309; New Haven Ad- 
dress (1816), pp. 12, 38. 

47 Courant, Oct. 15, 1816. 

48 Ibid., May 14, 1816 



I 



manufactures 119 

3. Manufactures 

The development of extensive manufacturing 
interests characterized the state's economic history 
from 1800 to the end of our period. Manufac- 
tures were encouraged by the Non- Intercourse 
acts, the war and blockade, the tariff and, to a 
considerable extent, by national patriotism. Yan- 
kee resourcefulness, adaptability and inventive 
genius assisted materially. The character of the 
country, affording cheap power and easy access to 
markets, proved advantageous. Again, the time 
was propitious. With commerce destroyed, capital 
invested in shipping turned to new ventures. 
There was a considerable accumulation of money 
which the banking system made available. Con- 
ditions were so favorable that manufactures were 
given a start by 181 8 which foretold their future 
greatness. 

The colonial period of manufacturing lasted until 
the turn of the nineteenth century. 49 Political 
independence had but little effect, though possibly 
more than is generally suspected. The removal 
of the restrictive measures gave some stimulus. 
The absence of a manufacturing boom can be 
accounted for by the lack of capital, the impossi- 
bility of launching infant factories in the face of 
English competition, and scarcity of labor, a situa- 
tion which was in no way neutralized by the inven- 
tion of labor-saving devices. 

A% J. Leander Bishop ended his first volume of the History of Ameri- 
can Manufactures from 1608 to 1860 with the year 1800. 



120 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

While the state continued to be essentially agri- 
cultural, there was an increasing output of domestic 
manufactures. 50 Tench Coxe reported a surplus 
of "Yankee notions" for export. Every village 
had its sawmill and gristmill operated by men, 
whose time was shared in farming. Unsuccessful 
attempts to raise silk had been fathered by men 
like Ezra Stiles. Paper mills were established in 
Norwich, East Hartford, Westville and Danbury. 
These mills produced annually by 1787 about 
$9,000 worth of paper. There were stocking looms 
at Colchester, Meriden and Norwich. A type- 
foundry at New Haven employed several men and 
boys. Colonel Wadswortn, encouraged by the As- 
embly, built a woolen factory at Hartford which 
furnished Washington the domestic woolens he is 
reputed to have worn on the occasion of his first 
address to Congress. 51 Its annual output amounted 
to 5,000 yards at five dollars a yard. Norwich, 
Westville and East Hartford had cotton mills. 
Clocks were made at East Windsor, Bristol, and 

50 Weeden, Economic History, II, 855; Bishop, American Manufac- 
tures, I, 103, 131, 200, 205, 207, 213, 250, 360, 413, 417, 516, 520. II, 
ch. 1, 45, 75-76; Statutes, p. 421; Woodward, Hartford Bank, p. 27; 
Thorpe, North Haven, p. 164; Atkins, Middlefield, pp. 21-25; Gillespie, 
Meriden, pp. 214 ff.; Hall, Marlborough, p. 29; Goodwin, East Hartford, 
pp. 155-162; Barber, New Haven, p. 58; Timlow, Southington, pp. 
119, 422; Gilman, Norwich, p. 221; Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, pp. 56- 
57; Allen, Enfield, I, 492; Jennings, Bristol, pp. 47-49; Baker, Mont- 
ville, pp. 621 ff.; Hughes, East Haven, pp. 115 ff.; Church, Address, 
pp. 46-48; Atwater, Kent, p. 81; W. H. Pynchon, "Iron Mining in 
Connecticut," Conn. Mag., V, 22 ff. 

61 Bishop, American Manufactures, I, 418; Chester W. Wright, Wool- 
Growing and the Tariff, p. 12. 



MANUFACTURES 121 

Norwich. An Irish tinsmith established the first 
American tinware factory at Berlin. The iron in- 
dustry, known since the earliest days of the colony, 
was centered in Salisbury, Enfield, and Canaan. 
Slitting mills, iron-rod and nail machines, and 
forges were set up in increasing numbers. Powder 
mills were not unknown; and in 1798 Eli Whitney, 
defrauded of the profits of his cotton-gin, had con- 
tracted with the government to manufacture fire- 
arms. Nor must the state's most thriving business 
be forgotten, that of distilling rum. 

These concerns were all small, employing a few 
men who were apt to give part of their time to 
agricultural work. There was no class of factory 
labor. Rural rather than town life was stimu- 
lated. The cities, imbued only with the impor- 
tance of commerce, were not affected. 52 In short 
it was but the first step from the domestic to the 
factory system. 

The introduction of merino sheep inaugurated 
the new epoch in Connecticut manufactures as 
well as in the woolen industry. 53 Coarse cloths 
for local consumption continued to be made in 
the homes. Carding machines were installed at 
every crossroads to card the housewife's wool on 
shares or for seven or eight cents a pound. Domes- 
tic manufacture of woolens increased as it was en- 
couraged by the conditions which gave rise to the 



52 Swift, System of the Laws, II, 155. 

53 Letter from Robert Livingston to a Southerner, Mercury, Aug. 
15, 1811. 



Jl 



122 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

woolen factories, these conditions being the scarcity 
and high price of woolens. 

The Non- Intercourse acts and the Embargo 
prevented the importation of fine English cloths. 
Prices of woolens rose at the very time America 
was in the high pitch of the merino mania. Full- 
blooded sheep were becoming numerous; old flocks 
were improved and increased. Early attempts 
by merino enthusiasts to weave cloth of English 
quality were regarded as highly successful. Labor 
was unusually plentiful owing to the depression in 
shipping and agriculture. Money was freer, with the 
opportunities for investment in shipping and agri- 
culture lessened. Such were the conditions which 
gave rise to the Connecticut woolens industry. 

By 1 8 10 the woolen industry was fairly well es- 
tablished. 54 The Republican party called for its 
support on the patriotic grounds that American 
manhood should be freed from the necessity of 
wearing a "foreign livery." The oncoming war 
clinched the point. All imports were embargoed, 
this time by the enemy country. Prices of fine 
cloths rose to nine and ten dollars a yard, and the 
demand for merino wool maintained a high price 
despite the great increase of the sheep-herds. 
Woolen factories sprang up under the encourage- 
ment of such favorable conditions, without ap- 
parently injuring household manufactures. Rather 
more intense was the zest with which the spinning 
wheels of the hearth were turned. 

M See Note 1, p. 137. 



MANUFACTURES 123 

General Humphreys, the prime promoter of 
agriculture and merinos, was among the first in 
the country to manufacture high-grade woolens. 
His interest was purely experimental, and his dis- 
play of cloths at fairs of agricultural and domestic 
manufactures was intended to demonstrate the 
value of improved sheep. The success of these 
endeavors caused Humphreys to establish a 
clothier's works. Jefferson wrote that he under- 
stood that the best cloth in America was made by 
Humphreys, and that, as "Homespun is become 
the spirit of the times, I think it an useful one and 
therefore that it is a duty to encourage it by 
example." 55 This he did by purchasing a suiting 
through the agency of Abraham Bishop. Madison 
at his inaugural is said to have worn a suit cut 
from the Humphreys cloth. 56 In 1810 the Hum- 

1 phreysville Manufacturing Company was chartered 
with a maximum capital of $500,000 in $400 
shares. 57 While David Humphreys, Oliver Wol- 

i cott and Thomas Vose were the incorporators, 
others were probably associated with them. They 
agreed to employ a teacher for three months to 
instruct the child employees in the elements of 
learning, religion, morals, and manners, probably 
for the purpose of placating the domestic manu- 

56 New Haven Hist. Soc, Papers, I, 143-146. 

56 Johnston, Connecticut, p. 343; Baker, Montville, pp. 621 ff. 

67 Public Laws, pp. 28-31. For an account of the Humphreys ville 
industry, see Courant, May 31, 1809; Atwater, Plymouth, p. 144; Camp- 
bell, Seymour, p. 233; Sharpe, Seymour, p. 68; Warden, Statistical Ac- 
count, II, 26; Bishop, American Manufactures, II, 167; Dwight, Travels, 
IH, 375 ff.; Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 117. 



124 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

facturers, who opposed factories on the grounds 
of morality. 58 Then, too, this instruction bespoke 
the mind of Connecticut regarding the elements 
of schooling for all children. At any rate, condi- 
tions were regarded as ideal and a proof that 
American factories need not bring in the evils of 
English factory life. 59 

This was immediately followed by the Middle- 
town Manufacturing Company, with a capital of 
$200,000 in $1,000 shares, and a similar charter. 
By 1 8 15 this company, housed in a five-story 
building, employed from sixty to eighty hands and 
manufactured annually $70,000 worth of cloth. 60 
During the next four years a good-sized clothier's 
/ works and another woolen mill were established 
/ in Middletown, employing over forty people and 
disposing of 25,000 pounds of wool a year. In 
18 1 3 a broadcloth factory was built at Wolcott- 
ville in which Oliver Wolcott was interested. Two 
woolen factories of considerable capacity were 
operating in Goshen. The Mystic Manufacturing 
Company commenced business in 18 14 with a 
capital of $200,000. Its manufacturing, however, 



58 See article in Portfolio (1817), IV, 317. 

59 In May, 1813, at the instance of Humphreys, the old laws of 
master and servant were revised to meet the new conditions; and a 
board of visitors was appointed to oversee the education and moral 
training of child employees. It is said that in New London, for in- 
stance, factories wrought an improvement in living conditions. Public 
Laws, p. 117; Sharpe, Seymour, p. 61; Niks' Register, VIII, 291; Mer- 
cury, Nov. 10, 1818. 

60 Public Laws, p. 41; Field, Middlesex, p. 42; Bishop, American 
Manufactures, II, 180. 



MANUFACTURES 125 

was of a general nature, including brass, iron, 
engines, as well as cotton and woolen goods. 61 

New London County had in 1815 fourteen 
woolen factories; Litchfield County counted at 
least eight, besides some forty-six cloth-dressing 
establishments. Hartford County in 18 18 re- 
ported nine woolen factories in addition to about 
thirty-seven fulling mills; New Haven County, 
five woolen mills and thirty-three fulling mills; 
Fairfield County, nine woolen mills besides twenty- 
nine fulling mills and clothiers' works; Windham, 
the cotton manufacturing county, ten small woolen 
works with thirty-seven fulling mills; Middlesex 
County, five woolen factories and seventeen fulling 
mills; and Tolland County had eleven fulling mills 
and a good number of carding machines, even 
though there was no woolen factory. Throughout 
the state there were about sixty woolen factories, 
although in 18 19 only five had a capacity of over 
10,000 pounds of raw wool a year. 62 

The decade of the Embargo and War witnessed 
not the birth, but the real beginning of the Con- 
necticut cotton industry. 63 Cotton manufactur- 
ing had attained importance in Providence, Rhode 
Island, because of the early endeavors of Samuel 
Slater and the Browns. Favorable trade condi- 

61 See Field, Middlesex, pp. 42-43; Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 272; 
Orcutt, Torrington, pp. 92 ff.; Wheeler, Stonington, p. 141; Bishop, Amer- 
ican Manufactures, II, 194-195. 

62 See Warden, Statistical Account, II, 26; Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, 
pp. 37, 95, 141, 170, 204, 230, 271, 289; Niles' Register, VIII, 291; 
Bishop, American Manufactures, II, 195; Wright, W ool-Gr owing; p. 43. 

63 Stiles, Diary, III, 525; Dwight, Connecticut, p. 414. 



126 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

tions such as low-priced cotton and extravagant 
prices for cloth, caused such a rapid extension of 
the business into Connecticut that the Windham 
Herald in 181 1 was justified in asking: "Are not the 
people running cotton mill mad?" 64 Cotton cloths 
were woven in factories built by stock companies, 
whose subscribers were small investors of the 
farming class or local capitalists, 65 rather than 
in the homes. Probably this was due to the fact 
that cotton became known in the factory age, 
whereas centuries-long was the association between 
the home and homespuns. However, according 
to Tench Coxe, flaxen goods to the value of about 
$800,000 were woven in the home in 1810. 66 

Windham County, because of its proximity to 
Rhode Island, early became the center of the in- 
dustry. In 1806 the Pomfret Manufacturing Com- 
pany bought 1,000 acres of land and built a factory 
involving a capital of $60,000. The size of their 
holding made it possible to exclude taverns from 
the vicinity of the factory and to offer farm-work 
to the parents of child employees. A school and 
church were built, attracting attention as a favor- 
able contrast to the English system. Work was 
given to the townspeople, some of whom were 
able to save from $50 to $200 a year from their 
earnings. 67 In Sterling there were three cotton 

M Larned, Windham County, II, 402. 

65 Junius in Norwich Courier, quoted in Mercury, Nov. 3, 1818. 

66 Tables, p. 28; Niles' Register, II, 323 ff. 

67 Bishop, American Manufactures, II, 113; Larned, Windham County, 
II, 400; Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 219. 



MANUFACTURES 127 

factories in 1818, one with 1,600 spindles. Thomp- 
son had three plants which by 1818 were turning 
5,000 spindles. Plainfield built four cotton fac- 
tories between 1809 and 1818. Killingly's four 
mills with 5,000 spindles employed a large number 
of hands, and represented an outlay of $300,000. 
Woodstock had a large cotton factory and a com- 
bination cotton and woolen mill. In 18 18 this 
county had twenty-two cotton mills, about one- 
third the number in the whole state — an in- 
crease of eighteen in eight years. The industry 
from the point of numbers engaged and the value 
of the product was second only to agriculture, and 
served to check emigration by giving employment 
to the surplus population. 68 

Hartford County had five cotton mills in 18 10, 
and thirteen in 1818; only the Hartford Manu- 
facturing Company, the Marlborough Manufactur- 
ing Company, and one at Glastonbury were 
important. The Marlborough factory, capitalized 
at $42,000 in 1 81 5, made a specialty of blue cotton 
slave-clothes. New Haven County had only two 
mills in 1818, the one at Humphreysville and 
another in New Haven. During these years New 
London County built nine small mills. The town 
of Norwich had a factory with 1,200 spindles; and 
in Groton there were woven, but chiefly in the 
domestic way, 500,000 yards a year. Altogether 
the counties of Fairfield, Middlesex and Litchfield 
had only twelve small cotton factories in 1818. 

68 Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, pp. 17, 213, 217, 222, 224; Lamed, 
j Windham County, II, 402, 438; Coxe, Tables, p. 28. 



128 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Nine cotton mills were scattered throughout the 
towns of Tolland County, but the two in the town 
of Hebron, with 2,000 spindles, were alone worthy 
of note. 69 

These manufacturing concerns each represented 
an outlay of from $30,000 to $300,000 in lands, 
buildings, and machinery, according to the con- 
tention of a firm supporter in 18 18. This, he 
argued, the state should consider by conserving 
their welfare. He saw in the growth of manu- 
factures a cessation of the population's "continual 
surges to the West." "In the three eastern dis- 
tricts of Connecticut," he continued, "the travel- 
ler's eye is charmed with the view of delightful 
villages, suddenly rising as it were by magic, along 
the banks of some meandering rivulet ; flourishing 
by the influence and fostered by the protecting 
arm of manufactures." 70 His was a sanguine, but 
not an untrue picture. 

While the rise of cloth factories was the most 
noticeable feature in the transition from agricul- 
ture to manufacturing, other industries grew rap- 
idly apace. By 18 10 there were twenty-four flax- 
seed oil mills, with a productivity of $65,000. 
Five hundred distilleries produced 1,374,404 gal- 
lons of spirits, valued at $800,000. Buttons valued 
at $100,000 were annually turned out. Four 
hundred tanneries did a three-quarter million- 

69 Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, pp. 37, 43, 75, 82, 101, 117, 147, 154, 170, 
230, 270, 289, 292, 296, 302; Niles' Register, VIII, 291; Hull, Marlborough, 
p. 29; Coxe, Tables, p. 28. 

70 Junius in Norwich Courier quoted in Mercury, Nov. 3, 1818. 



MANUFACTURES 129 

dollar leather and shoe business. Eighteen rope- 
walks were worth about $250,000. Fourteen houses 
produced yearly $60,000 worth of glass and pottery. 
Three rolling mills and eighteen naileries did a 
$30,000 business. Gun factories had a capacity 
of 4,400 guns per year. The tinware industry 
amounted to $139,670, with brass goods at $50,000. 
Eight blast furnaces and forty-eight forges pro- 
duced $184,000 worth of bar iron. Thirty- two 
trip hammers added nearly $100,000 to the iron 
products. Seven mills manufactured gunpowder. 
Combs to the annual value of about $125,000, 
paper products from nineteen mills at over $80,000, 
hats and bonnets at $560,000, and silk, stock- 
ings, and suspenders at nearly $140,000 reveal the 
variety of manufactures already established. 71 
The grand total of manufactured goods returned 
1 by the census marshals amounted to $5,900,560, 
in 1 8 10, leaving only Massachusetts, New York, 
Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia in the lead. 
Tench Coxe, however, estimated the total out- 
put at $7, 771, 928. 72 In 1810 an actual survey 
map, published by Hudson and Goodwin of the 
Connecticut Courant, shows the location of all 
factories, mills, distilleries, and furnaces. Their 
number is surprising and must have astonished 
even the best-informed men of the state. While 
no attempt was made to differentiate between small 
and large factories, forges and the like, the signifi- 
cance of the mere compilation must not be under- 

71 Coxe, Tables, pp. 28-30. 

78 Coxe, Tables; Bishop, American Manufactures, II, 163. 



130 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

estimated. One is impressed with the fact that 
Connecticut's fairly extensive manufacturing did 
not mean the concentration of industries in cities 
or in sections. 

During the following decade (18 10-1820) these 
industries increased in number, size and output. 73 
Powder mills increased from seven in 18 10 to 
thirteen in 18 18; paper mills from nineteen to 
twenty-four; and glass works from two to four, to 
cite random examples. Forges, furnaces, naileries, 
oil mills, gun shops, and tin works all enlarged 
their capacity and output. Litchfield County re- 
ported thirty-nine forges for every conceivable kind 
of iron goods. New Haven, Hamden, Berlin, Mid- 
dletown and Hartford manufactured guns, swords 
and pistols. Two of the Middletown munitions 
factories alone employed one hundred men. The 
twenty-four paper mills of the state had as centers 
Norwich and East Hartford. Carts journeying 
from town to town with the products of the tin- 
plate factories became usual sights on distant turn- 
pike roads. The manufacture of clocks became in- 
creasingly important. Button factories profited 
along with the clothing industry. Their employ- 
ees numbered many women and children who were 
thus enabled to assist in the family support. 

73 Coxe, Tables, p. 28; Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, county tabulations, 
also pp. 14 ff., 95, 170; Conn. Mag., V, 278 ff. VII, 628; Church, Ad- 
dress, p. 46; W. W. Lee, Barkhamstead, pp. 37, 47; Field, Middlesex, 
p. 43; Jennings, Bristol, pp. 47-49; Gillespie, Meriden, pp. 352-355; 
D wight, Connecticut, p. 413; D wight, Travels, II, 43, 45; Bronson, 
Waterbury, pp. 559 ff.; Anderson, Waterbury, 1, 502; Timlow, Southington, 
p. 422; Courant, Jan. 29, 1812. 



MANUFACTURES 131 

Danbury in 1810 had some fifty-six hat shops, 
but none employed over four men. By the 
end of the decade they had grown considerably 
because of improved machinery and the cessation 
of foreign competition. The leather trade of 
Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven and Norwich 
flourished. Plows, wagons and carriages were 
made in New Haven, Burlington and Enfield 
for local and southern trade. The distilling in- 
dustry, while well represented throughout the 
various towns, centered in Hartford County. As 
a business, it proved especially profitable as the 
waste could be utilized to fatten export-swine and 
cattle. It was regarded highly, as it stimulated the 
local grain production. 74 

The manufacturing spirit was fast gaining sway. 
Men were turning from languishing commerce to 
manufacturing. There was a shifting of popula- 
tion within the state from the country to the cities. 
Hartford, New London, New Haven, and the 
borough of Bridgeport were gaining in population, 
while the smaller towns were at a standstill, or 
actually being depopulated. A city laboring-class 
was forming, as the census tables of 1820 amply 
demonstrate. 75 No state save Rhode Island could 
show so large a percentage of its population en- 
gaged in manufacturing. 76 

Patriotism played an important part in stimu- 
lating manufactures, being appealed to during and 

74 See Note II, p. 138. 

75 See Note III, p. 138. 

76 Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 14; Morse and Morse, Guide, p. 91. 



// 



132 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

after the War by writers, advertisers, and Republi- 
can orators. 77 Republicans, playing the patriotic 
tune, charged their opponents, who rather favored 
household manufactures, 78 with lack of genuine 
Americanism. They argued that "it must be 
truly gratifying to every true American to wit- 
ness the rapid introduction and progress of manu- 
facturing establishments in the various parts of 
the United States." 79 The Federalist, a man of the 
past, gloried in agriculture and shipping, while the 
Republican, with more perspicacity, read the future 
and approved manufactures and independence. 

This Republican attitude was in part oppor- 
tunist, for local Republicans were bound to defend 
the whole Jeffersonian policy, which incidentally 
stimulated many industries. The Federalists, on 
the other hand, attacked the Embargo on all 
occasions and from every angle. It was ruining 
the state's wealth, destroying agriculture and 
commerce to the advantage of manufactures, 
building up an aristocracy, corrupting the moral 
life, driving men to smuggling, and depriving 
working men of labor. 80 Senator Hillhouse saw 
a betrayed New England, its commerce over- 
thrown by visionary men. He deprecated the 
state's diminishing importance in national affairs, 

77 Mercury, Apr. 5, 1810; July 11, 1811; Kentucky Reporter article 
in Mercury, Dec. 16, 1817; Chronicle article in Mercury, Feb. 20, 1816; 
article from the Aurora in Mercury, Oct. 24, 1811. 

78 Trumbull's "Addresses to the Legislature" in Mercury, May 26, 
1803; Courant, May 14, 1806; Mercury, May 28, 1807. 

79 From The Democrat quoted in Mercury, Oct. 24, 1811. 

80 See hostile editorials, Courant, Mar. 30, Apr. 6, 1808. 



MANUFACTURES 133 

making it helpless to prevent a policy which drove 
marines into factories. 81 Governor Treadwell's 
speech of May, 1810, was bitterly assailed by 
Republicans because they "read not a word of 
manufactures, although they are more formidable 
to Britain than a navy of 100 ships of the line." 82 
Governor John Cotton Smith, in 18 14, believed that 
legislative encouragement had fostered manufac- 
tures quite enough. Indeed, he feared that they 
had been unduly increased, in the light of return- 
ing commercial activities. Domestic manufac- 
tures, he heartily advocated. 83 This party division 
became more noticeable during the War and the 
hard years of the panic. 

Peace in 181 5 marked prosperity's wane. This 

the manufacturers learned as much to their sur- 

] prise as to their cost. England's attention was 

wholly given to commerce and manufactures, and 

1 her labor was never cheaper, for the discharged 

soldier was returning to field and shop. Spanish 

I and German wool forced downward the price of 

j raw wool, as Russian hemp did in the case of that 

( commodity. The war-devastated continent offered 

j a poor market, but in America England saw an 

opportunity if the competing industries could be 

J destroyed. 

i This could be done with ultimate profit by under- 
selling them in their home market. Lord Brougham, 
in a speech in Parliament, declared: 

M Letter to Noah Webster, Courant, Apr. 6, 1808. 

82 M ercury, May 24, 1810. 

88 "Address" in Courant, May 17. 



134 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

It was even worth while to incur a loss upon the first 
exportations, in order by the glut to stifle in the cradle these 
rising manufactures in the United States, which the war 
had forced into existence, contrary to the natural course of 
things. 84 

This was the policy followed. America bought 
unwisely on credit, thus playing into rival hands. 85 
The result was the financial and commercial de- 
pression of the years 1815-1818. 

The banks, hard pressed, were unable to redeem 
their own notes or to make loans. Factories 
and mills closed, as English goods forced prices 
below the cost of production. Retailers were 
deluged; imported goods were sold at auction. 
Patriotism could not withstand sacrifice prices, 
especially when English woolens were regarded 
as the acme of perfection. The effect on the woolen 
industry was appalling, nurtured, as it had been, 
by monopoly prices. Unable to negotiate loans, 
manufacturers failed or shut down; only a few 
operated their factories. The whole industry bid 
fair to be destroyed. 86 

Cotton manufacturing suffered almost as severe- 
ly. 87 Raw cotton rose in price because of the 
foreign demand from thirteen cents in 18 14 to 
twenty cents in 181 5, twenty-seven cents in 18 16, 
and finally thirty-four cents in 1818. At the 

84 Bishop, American Manufactures, II, 212. 

85 Humphreys, Discourse (1816), p. 13. 

86 Wright, Wool-Growing, p. 41; Field, Middlesex, p. 42; Pease and 
Niles, Gazetteer, pp. 17, 43; Bishop, American Manufactures, III, 194; 
Larned, Windham County, II, 424, 427, 437; P. Perkins, Historical 
Sketches, p. 58; John Cotton Smith's address to the Legislature, 
Courant, May 14, 1816. 

87 Bishop, American Manufactures, II, 212 ff., 244. 



MANUFACTURES 135 

same time cotton goods were falling in value. 
In this way the hope of a closer economic union be- 
tween North and South through cotton and inter- 
nal trade was doomed to disappointment. Yankee 
ingenuity in cutting the cost of production by im- 
proving power spindles alone saved the industry. 
While woolen and cotton manufacturers suffered 
most severely, all manufacturing was greatly hin- 
dered by competition and the panicky conditions. 

Economic depression meant general discontent. 
Housewives found domestic spinning less profitable ; 
factory operatives were idle; and men were forced 
to emigrate. The party in favor of manufactur- 
ing was in a position to make an effectual appeal. 
Factory owners and stockholders desired favorable 
legislation; and they recognized the interests of 
the old order when commerce and shipping thrived. 
Naturally, they turned toward the party which 
supported manufactures. New capital and new 
labor joined the new party, while old capital re- 
mained Federalist in sympathy. 

The tariff of 1816 assisted manufactures, but 
did not satisfy the New England cotton and woolen 
manufacturers who convened to draw up memorials, 
beseeching Congress for more protection. 88 There 
was established a Connecticut Society for the En- 
couragement of Manufactures whose purpose was 
to advance manufactures in every legitimate way. 89 
Even John Cotton Smith in 181 6 declared that, while 

88 Bishop, American Manufactures, II, 213, 214, 235. 

89 Among its leaders were "Boss" Alexander Wolcott, Commodore 
McDonough, and the Federalists, Judge Titus Hosmer and Asher 
Miller of the Council. Constitution and Address (1817). 



136 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

the enterprise of citizens had carried them too far, so 
much capital had been invested that the state would 
suffer if relief were not given. He inclined toward 
a policy of bounties and exemptions by the state, 
especially in the case of household manufactures, 
or those allied with agriculture. 90 The Assembly 
of May, 1817, four-fifths of whose members were 
clothed in domestic woolens, exempted cotton and 
woolen factories from taxation for four years, and 
their employees from a poll tax or militia service. 91 
A resolution was passed, urging citizens to buy 
American manufactures that business might be 
revived. Federalists condemned this as partial 
legislation, maintaining that all industry as well 
as this particular branch had suffered a set-back. 92 
Democratic papers begged citizens to drive out 
the "foreign gew-gaws and finery," so unsuited to 
Christians and Republicans, and to cease "sup- 
porting tyranny in England by taking British 
manufactures." They further exercised them- 
selves to disprove the Federalist contention that 
immorality, vicious poverty and factories were 
concomitant. Federalist writers, pointing to the 
current Spa- Fields riots, remarked that England as 
the workshop of nations was not to be envied. 
Manufacturing made the few rich. Pauperism in- 
creased pauperism fifty-fold. Republicans argued 
that, deprived of commerce, Connecticut must 
look to manufactures to retain her people. As a 

90 Address to the Legislature in Courant, May 14, 1816. 

91 Conn. Laws; Atwater, Plymouth, p. 144; Niks' Register, XII, 
360; Mercury, July 1, 1817. 

92 Courant, July 3, 8, 1817. 



MANUFACTURES 



137 



further incentive they predicted that manufac- 
tures would more closely cement the union of states, 
build up a coast shipping, and possibly even a 
South- American trade rivalling that of England. 
Party lines were drawn, for manufactures could 
not be viewed nationally, but must be made 
political capital. 93 

NOTES 
I. Woolen Statistics for 1810 



COUNTIES 


YARDS WOOLEN 
GOODS IN FAMI- 
LIES 


VALUE 


WOOLEN 

FAC- 
TORIES 


LOOMS FOR 

COTTON AND 

WOOLENS 


Hartford 


188,663 
131,054 
114,760 
139,572 
109,852 
281,184 
67,062 
86,998 


$193,311.45 
141,676.75 

83,683.04 
157,229.74 

86,688.50 
278,496.68 

85,406.76 

71,749.00 


2 
1 

5 
2 
1 
3 
1 



2,372 
1,566 
2,240 


New Haven 


New London 


Fairfield 


1,897 
2,435 
3,279 
1,101 
1,242 


Windham 


Litchfield 


Middlesex 


1 Tolland 


i 


i 

| 


1,119,145 


$1,098,241.92 


15 


16,132 


\ 

1 


CARDING 

MACHINES 


POUNDS CARDED 


FULLING 
MACHINES 


>< Hartford 


35 
28 
19 
36 
17 
30 
10 
9 


73,419 

776,500 

79,999 

101,200 

64,470 

85,000 

20,000 

3,500 




39 


New Haven 


33 


New London 


19 


Fairfield 


35 


Windham 


21 


Litchfield 


45 


Middlesex 


14 


Tolland 


12 






1 


184 


504,088 


218 



Taken from Tench Coxe, Series of Tables, p. 28. 

93 New York Columbian quoted in Mercury, Apr. 25, 1817; Mercury, 
Jan. 21, 1817; Mar. 10, Nov. 17, 1818; Courant, Jan. 11, 1814; Feb. 25, 
1817; Dwight, Decisions, p. 281. 



138 



CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 



II. Manufacturing by Counties 

Hartford County had 13 cotton factories; 9 woolen mills; 37 fulling 
mills; 38 wool-carding machines; 11 powder mills; 8 paper mills; 5 oil 
mills; 83 grain mills; 2 forges; a furnace; 2 glass works; besides con- 
siderable manufacturing of buttons, spoons, combs, and plows (for the 
South). Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 37. 

New Haven: 2 cotton factories; 5 woolen mills; 33 fulling mills; 30 
wool-carding machines; a powder mill; 4 paper mills; 3 oil mills; 54 
grain mills; a forge; a furnace; a great gun factory; and a considerable 
output of tinware, buttons, clocks. Ibid., p. 95. 

New London: 9 cotton factories; 16 woolen; 15 fulling mills; 18 wool 
carders; 3 paper mills; 2 oil mills; 70 grain mills; 2 forges. Ibid., p. 141. 

Fairfield: 5 cotton factories; 9 woolen; 29 fulling mills; 40 carders; 2 
paper mills; 80 grain mills; a forge, a rolling and a slitting mill; Danbury 
hats and leather goods a leading industry. Ibid., p. 170. 

Windham: 22 cotton mills; 10 woolen; 37 fulling; 23 carders; 2 paper 
mills; 2 oil mills; 85 grain mills; considerable iron, some silk, and combs. 
Ibid., p. 204. 

Litchfield: 4 cotton factories; 8 woolen; 46 fulling; 50 carders; 1 paper 
mill; 2 oil mills; 62 grain mills; 39 forges; 5 furnaces; 8 anchor shops; 
2 slitting mills. Ibid., p. 230. 

Middlesex: 3 cotton factories; 5 woolen; 17 fulling; 16 carders; a 
powder mill; a paper mill; 1 oil mill; 43 grain mills; 1 forge; 6 furnaces; 
manufactures respectable; considerable commerce (about 100 vessels) 
and shad fishing. Ibid., pp. 270-271. 

Tolland: 9 cotton factories; 4 woolen mills; 11 fulling; 20 carders; 3 
paper mills; 2 oil mills; 36 grain mills; 3 glass works; 2 forges; 3 furnaces; 
manufactures, both domestic and commercial. Ibid., p. 289. 

III. Figures for 1820 



COUNTIES 



Hartford. . . . 
Hew Haven. 
New London 

Fairfield 

Windham 

Litchfield. . . . 
Middlesex. . . 
Tolland 



POPULA- 


AGRICUL- 




TION 


TURE 




47,264 


7,919 


626 


39,615 


6,673 


617 


34,248 


7,681 


975 


41,353 


6,157 


472 


30,871 


6,317 


156 


40,288 


8,347 


251 


21,895 


3,457 


424 


14,080 


3,967 


60 



MANUFAC- 
TURERS 



3,315 

2,648 
1,847 
3,083 
1,851 
2,682 
1,582 
533 



CHAPTER IV 

i . Emigration and Western Lands 

IMMIGRATION, western lands, and the im- 
-"-^ provement of agricultural methods became 
questions of vital importance after 1800. They 
were so interdependent that the discussion of one 
involves the consideration of all. Emigration was 
caused partly by the knowledge that lands, cheap, 
fertile and abundant, were available on the frontier. 
To prevent emigration, which was draining popu- 
lation and increasing the cost of labor, agriculture 
was encouraged. Something must be done, it was 
reasoned, to enable the high-priced Connecticut 
farm to compete with the enticing new lands of 
the West. Because of their close association, the 
three subjects will be treated in a single chapter. 

"Emigration is a wholesome drain on a redun- 
dant population," said Edmund Burke. The word 
"wholesome" was used advisedly, for emigrants 
as a rule are from the discontented class. Presi- 
dent Dwight believed and even rejoiced that the 
New Englanders who were going westward were 
shiftless, ne'er-do-weel persons. 1 One might differ 
from Dwight by arguing that the emigrants, while 
poor, were men of energy and force, with the 
courage to venture on a new life in the wilderness. 
At all events, they were dissatisfied with condi- 

1 Travels, III, 509-510. 

139 



140 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

tions. They felt oppressed and desired change 
They might not have been knowingly reformers 
or radical in politics, but there was within them 
a consuming fire which made of them potential 
revolutionists. Emigration offered a panacea to 
them, and to the state a safety-valve. To the 
Standing Order it was a Godsend; for otherwise 
this discontented mass must have broken down 
restraints and forced an earlier reform, if not a 
thorough upheaval. 

The population of Connecticut could hardly be 
described as redundant, even though at first the 
economic life was agricultural, and intensive farm- 
ing was unknown. From the time of the Revo- 
lution there had been a heavy emigration which 
continually increased until, by 1815, it became al- 
most a migratory furor. In 181 7 a western travel- 
ler could write: "Old America seems to be break- 
ing up and moving westward." 2 

For such a movement there must have been an 
occasion. The reasons are not far to seek, though 
their ramifications strike deep into the vitals of 
the state's life. Men were actuated by various 
considerations, some vital, others secondary. Some 
were discontented with the narrow religious sys- 
tem of a state church, the close scrutiny over morals 
and pleasures, the forced payment of tithes, and 
the oppressive ministerial influence which per- 
meated the whole atmosphere. These were likely 

2 Morris Birkbeck, Notes on a Journey in America, p. 32. See also 
Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 11; Niks' Register, X, 398. 



EMIGRATION AND WESTERN LANDS 141 

to be men of no religion or dissenters. 3 Others, 
harassed by the social intrenchment, were at- 
tracted by the frontier, with its liberality and 
equality. Others were men of political ambition 
who saw no hope of advancement under the Federal 
Congregationalist regime. Still others were on 
the underside of the economic scale with small, 
worn-out and mortgaged farms. They might have 
been farm laborers or men displaced by the failure 
of the shipping business. To them the West offered 
land and dreams of a future. Finally, due to their 
enterprising character, Connecticut people, like all 
New Englanders, were supposed to have a natural 
touch of wanderlust quite in accord with the term 
" wandering Yankee." 4 

Prior to the Revolution there was a decided in- 
terest in the West. The Delaware Company, 
which as early as 1760 undertook settlements, was 
a Connecticut company. The incorporators of 
the Susquehanna Company were for the most part 
from Connecticut, and chiefly from Windham 
County. In 1 774-1 776 the Susquehanna district, 
the ill-fated Wyoming Valley, was settled by Con- 
necticut people and incorporated as a town at- 
tached first to Litchfield County and later as a 
separate county. 5 Phineas Lyman, the hero of 
Lake George in the French and Indian War, 

3 The emigration of dissenters was noteworthy. See Bronson, 
Waterbury, p. 314; Atwater, Plymouth, p. 429; Goodenough, Clergy of 
Litchfield, p. 14; Kilbourne, Sketches, pp. 303 ff. 

4 See Duncan, Travels, I, 106. 

6 Lois K. Mathews, The Expansion of New England, p. 119; John- 
ston, Connecticut, p. 275. 



142 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

migrated to West Florida, settling near Natchez. 6 
Litchfield County becoming fairly thickly popu- 
lated, the Connecticut emigrant turned toward 
more distant frontiers. He made his way up the 
Connecticut River into the river counties of New 
Hampshire, settled in the Berkshires, or pushed 
into Duchess or Columbia counties, New York. 7 
The war stimulated emigration by making men 
familiar with new lands. It inaugurated the policy 
of paying off soldiers in land-script. By way of 
illustration the town of Salisbury found that of 
its war veterans few ever returned, preferring to 
settle in the new countries. 8 Evidently the type 
of man who fought the war was represented in the 
intrepid, stirring emigrant. There was a steady 
increase in emigration, especially to western New 
Hampshire and Vermont. 9 So great was the exo- 
dus to the latter state, that it was colloquially often 
spoken of as "New Connecticut." Vermont might 
be considered the child of Litchfield County, 
whence came so many of its colonists and early 
leaders in political life, at the bar and in the pulpit. 
For instance, the town of Middlebury was settled 
by people from Salisbury, Connecticut. The ros- 

6 Johnston, Connecticut, pp. 262, 277; Dexter, Biographical Sketches, 
III, 36. 

7 Mathews, Expansion of New England, map opposite p. 124; Field, 
Middlesex, p. 17; Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 11. 

8 Church, Address, p. 50. 

9 Gov. Wolcott's Address to the Assembly, Conrant, May 16, 1796; 
Field, Middlesex, p. 17; Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 11; J. F. Mc- 
Laughlin, Matthew Lyon, pp. 79 ff.; Mathews, Expansion of New England, 
pp. 142 ff. 



EMIGRATION AND WESTERN LANDS 143 

ter of Dartmouth graduates emphasized the same 
story, the trend toward the North. Of the two 
hundred and eighty-four men who had taken 
degrees up to 1790, one hundred and twenty-one 
came from Connecticut, besides those who were 
sons of emigrants. 10 

There was a rush before 1800 for New York. 
Enterprising young men with their families were 
entering what was then termed the Genessee 
Country, now Ontario and Steuben counties. It 
was a Suffield man, the bank promoter, Oliver 
Phelps, who was a partner in the purchase of this 
huge tract of two and one-fifth million acres. 
Naturally, he exerted himself to the utmost to sell 
farms in this region. Through his efforts and 
influence the Genessee became characteristically 
Connecticut. 11 Judge Hugh White of Middle- 
town founded Whites town, which rapidly increased 
in wealth and population. Along with the neigh- 
boring settlements of Binghamton and Durham, 
it was an outpost of old Connecticut. 12 Then 
there was a considerable movement of popula- 
tion into the Western Reserve, which Connecti- 
cut had sold in 1795 to the land speculators, chief 
of whom were Oliver Phelps and William Hart. 13 

No figures are available for emigration, but the 
movement was sufficient to arouse misgivings. 

10 Mathews, Expansion of New England, p. 133. 

11 Ibid., pp. 153 ff.; Woodward, Hartford Bank, pp. 47-49; Field, 
Middlesex, p. 39; Church, Litchfield Centennial, p. 48. 

12 Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, pp. 88, 275; Dexter, Biographical 
Sketches, V, 121. 

13 Woodward, Hartford Bank, pp. 47, 70 ff. 



144 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Population was kept at a standstill. 14 States- 
men were questioning if it were good policy to 
encourage this western movement, and if the land 
speculator, by arousing the migratory spirit, was 
doing a patriotic service. 

From 1800 to the Second War emigration con- 
tinued. New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine 
lands appealed to the few 15 while Pennsylvania 
and western New York attracted large num- 
bers. Kirby and Law's settlement in Pennsyl- 
vania was described as rapidly enlarging, with 
schools and churches already flourishing. The 
lands of Wayne, Tioga, Northampton, and Luzerne 
counties were advertised in all newspapers by the 
agents who toured the East. These counties, 
especially Luzerne, became Connecticut centers. 16 
New York lands were boomed quite as much. 
Genessee, Oswego, Greene, Delaware, Chenango, 
Steuben, Tioga, Onondaga counties became famil- 
iar to every one. Connecticut towns were pouring 
out their "surplus" population. Yet, great as was 
the movement into these states, the distant Ohio 
country was attracting even more emigrants. 

The Western Reserve drew with magnetic force 
the emigrant. He knew that he was merely going 

14 Boyd, Winchester, p. 84; Lamed, Windham County, II, 294; Porter, 
Historical Address, p. 88; Stiles, Diary, III, 311. 

15 A million acres were offered in Lincoln County, Maine, with the 
suggestion that this region was more suitable for Connecticut men than 
the pestilential lands of the West. Courant, Aug. 13, 1806; see also 
Courant, Sept. 20, 1809; July 31, 1811. 

16 The agent printed lists of Connecticut purchasers, Courant, July 
31, Aug. 7, 1811. All these newspaper references are simply illus- 
trative, for land advertisements appeared in all issues. 



EMIGRATION AND WESTERN LANDS 145 

to New Connecticut where the advantages of the 
old state in the way of people, schools and churches, 
were to be found in conjunction with cheap lands 
and western freedom. Then, too, the Ohio Land 
companies were closely connected with Connecti- 
cut through officers or incorporators who were 
natives. 17 Rev. Manasseh Cutler, whose son lived 
in Killingly, had for his surveyor a Connecticut 
man, Jonathan Meigs. James Kilbourne of Granby 
was prominent in the Scioto Company ; and General 
Cleveland of Canterbury was associated with all 
these ventures. Harrison and Randolph counties 
were said to be in Connecticut hands. Five hun- 
dred thousand acres were offered on the Lake Erie 
turnpike road and four hundred thousand in Trum- 
bull County by a Hartford dealer. Uriel Holmes, 
Lemuel Storrs, Ephraim Root, John Caldwell, 
Jonathan Brace, Enoch Perkins and Thomas Bull 
were among the leading local land agents. Busi- 
ness was done on a large scale, every inducement 
was offered, and words were not spared in the 
portrayal of rosy vistas for the prospective emi- 
grant. Rivalry only stimulated their activity, 
their business shrewdness, and their descriptive 
vocabularies. The land agent was serving his 
purpose. 

The extent of this migration can be seen in the 
rapid growth of the Western Reserve. As early 
as 1809 it was said to contain 15,000 to 20,000 

17 Mathews, Expansion of New England, pp. 175, 179; Larned, 
Windham County, II, 316; Dexter, Biographical Sketches, III, 664-666; 
Courant, June 11, Nov. 12, 1806; May 20, July 22, 1807. 



146 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

persons, with four counties, courts, eighty mills, 
a furnace, ten stores, schools and a college. 18 Rev. 
Thomas Robbins, while a missionary, met many 
Connecticut people and numerous personal ac- 
quaintances. Closely scrutinizing the newspapers, 
one is surprised at the number of exiles whose 
names appear in the obituary columns. Margaret 
Dwight, travelling from Old to New Connecticut 
in 1810, was so impressed by the westward move- 
ment that she wrote: "From what I have seen 
and heard, I think the state of Ohio will be filled 
before Winter." 19 

The War of 1812 brought a lull in emigration 
and a slump in land sales. With peace declared, 
the rush westward gained ever greater momentum. 
Emigration in 181 5 had become a mania. 20 The 
state was in the throes of what was aptly termed 
the "Ohio fever." Newspapers were again filled 
with land advertisements by the New York and 
Ohio land agents. Western correspondents' let- 
ters were published along with articles descriptive 
of the West, in order to further encourage emi- 
gration. Widely circulated guides, gazetteers, and 
books of travel played their share in this general 
education. The omnipresent agent was nowhere 
inactive. Young men who built roads in New 
York or worked farther west during the dull season 

18 See Uriel Holmes's land advertisement, Courant, Mar. 22, 1809. 
Description of Reserve, ibid., Jan. 21, 1807. See G. Van R. Wickham, 
The Pioneer Families of Cleveland, 1796-1840. 

18 Diary, p. 47. 

20 Mathews, Expansion of New England, p. 183; Boyd, Winchester, 
p. 223; Duncan, Travels, I, 106. 



EMIGRATION AND WESTERN LANDS i47 

returned, praising the soil and climate. The New 
England peddler brought back his usual store of 
information concerning the new country and its 
opportunities. All classes were interested. The 
Yale Commencement oration in 1816, for instance, 
was on the "Spirit of Emigration from Eastern 
to Western States." 21 

The Ohio emigrant had generally been of the 
laboring class, but by 181 5 many an emigrant was 
a man of some means in his native state. 22 No 
longer were western lands an experiment; men of 
capital were becoming interested, as the safety of 
investment was assured. No longer need there 
be that dread of Indians at which the most coura- 
geous quailed, for the whole region by test of arms 
was American and the frontier had been moved 
another stage westward. The depression and hard 
times which so injured shipping and manufacturing 
found the demand for agricultural products steady 
and prices high. The hopes of internal trade were 
being pointed out by far-seeing individuals and 
fostered by land speculators. Men were instinc- 
tively recognizing the West's future. Eastern cap- 
ital was being invested in western roads and canals. 

As early as 1806 a Maine land advertisement 
called attention to the importation of western 
wheat into Massachusetts and Connecticut. 23 The 



21 Courani, Sept. 24, 1816. 

22 Cf. Birkbeck, Notes, p. 144. 

23 Courant, Aug. 13, 1806. About 1810 flour from New York and 
Philadelphia came into general use, though before 1800 all flour was 
locally milled. Allen, Enfield, I, 51. 



148 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Embargo days demonstrated the certainty of agri 
culture as compared with commerce. In 1817 tfc 
Courant noticed the driving of hogs from Kentucky 
to Georgetown, and from Ohio to New York, witk 
the observation that they were in as good selling 
condition as if locally raised. 24 Market prices were 
announced for grain, only to be followed in another 
column with accounts of the bumper wheat anc 
rye crops of the Lake countries. A Windsor dealer 
read the spirit of the inquiries after a market, when 
he lauded the Western Reserve because of the 
Philadelphia cattle market and the "newly dis- 
covered Lake market of Montreal." With markets 
available, men of means could afford to invest in 
the new lands and emigrate themselves. Only the 
"frontier farmer" class with its self-sufficient mode 
of life could go beyond the markets. 25 The moving 
westward* of the frontier was a question of market- 
stages quite as much as of classes of men. 

Labor after the war received a low net wage, for 
the cost of living was relatively high, and work was 
scarce. Hence laboring men turned toward the 
West where labor was held in respect, as it was in 
demand. Wages were good and the necessities 
of life cheap. The Cincinnati Liberty Bell ad- 
vised Yankee, job-hunting, street-walking me- 
chanics to come to a rapidly settling locality which 

M Courant, Jan. 14, June 24, 1817. 

26 Courant, Nov. 7, 1810; Aug. 5, 1817; Richmond Enquirer extract, 
Courant, July 22, 1817. There is a valuable article on internal navi- 
gation in The Portfolio (1817), IV, 165, also one on the progress of in- 
tercourse, Mercury, Oct. 6, 1808. See Charles W. Brewster, Rambles 
about Portsmouth, II, 363-376. 



EMIGRATION AND WESTERN LANDS 149 

is self-supporting and democratic. The American 
Mercury encouraged out-of-work mechanics to take 
advantage of the attractive opportunities of Ohio. 
Such appeals were not made in vain to debtors and 
men who were willing to work with a future com- 
petency as their goal. 26 

The democracy of the West was widely heralded. 
Travellers from* abroad or the East noted that in 
the new country all citizens had a vital part in the 
government. 27 Republicans of political aspira- 
tions saw a future in this promised land where there 
were no Tories, few lawyers or doctors, no tithe 
gatherers, and where ministers were only ciphers. 
To the West they looked for the preservation of 
Republican principles as a counter balance for the 
growing aristocracy of the East. Men knew that 
the life led on the frontier could but breed 
equality and social democracy. 28 It was this 
knowledge which proved one of the strongest in- 
centives to emigrate. 

Western lands, so easy of acquisition, were the 
main cause of the exodus. While these lands were 
not all the imaginative land agents portrayed 
in their prospectuses, yet they were far more 
fertile and productive than the worn-out farms of 
Connecticut. Western lands required little care, 
while home farms needed painful attention. Con- 
necticut farms were relatively small, though there 

26 Mercury, Aug. 30, 1815; Sept. 10, 1816; Courant, Aug. 5, 1817. 
See Perkins, Historical Sketches, p. 59. 

27 Birkbeck, Notes, p. 29. 

28 New York Journal article in Mercury, Sept. 6, 1810; Mercury, 
Aug. 30, 1815. Note I, p. 172. 



150 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

was a tendency toward consolidation and enclosure 
— arrangements only possible' for the wealthy farmer. 
For the poor man the purchase of local lands was 
out of the question, for prices ranged from about 
fourteen to fifty dollars an acre, and taxes were 
high. 29 Better lands could be purchased for three 
dollars an acre in western New York, Pennsyl- 
vania or Ohio where taxes were at a minimum, and 
transportation was becoming easier every year. 80 
No lands were sold for taxes in Ohio, while every 
year saw hundreds of small Connecticut lots sold 
under the auctioneer's hammer. 31 

The purchase of western lands was made easier 
by the terms, often seven years, which the agent 
allowed. 32 He would trade large tracts for small 
Connecticut plots; he would give special induce- 
ments to men of standing who were already free- 
holders; and to actual settlers he would sell lands 
cheaper. In this the agent anticipated the later 
national policy of selling lands at a low rate in 
order to further settlement. The agent took care 
of the poor man, selling farms as small as fifty 
acres at a slightly increased price, when the govern- 
ment would only sell to large purchasers. Here 
again Congress was to learn. 

29 Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 214; Dwight, Connecticut, p. 440; 
A Hartford farm was offered at $14 an acre. Courant, Mar. 22, 1809. 
at Granville for $22 and at Winchester for $14. Ibid., June 3, 1807; 
Mar. 27, 1811. 

30 Courant, Apr. 10, 1811; Feb. 27, 1816. 

31 John Kilboume, Ohio Gazetteer, p. 176. In Connecticut great 
lists Oi such lands were advertised every year. 

33 For instance, James Burr's notice in Courant, Mar. 19, 1816. 
See Courant, May 24, 1809; Apr. 15, 1817. 



EMIGRATION AND WESTERN LANDS 151 

The number of emigrants cannot be estimated 
even in the roughest way. Were such data avail- 
able, the result would be astounding. The census 
figures for the various towns picture the desertion 
of Connecticut. Many towns were as large or 
larger in 1790 than in 1820. 33 Other towns were 
more populous in 1800 than in 1820. 34 The greatest 
losses appear to fall between 1790 and 18 10. 
While there was a distinct loss of population in a 
number of towns from 18 10 to 1820, others re- 
mained about stationary, with a few, where manu- 
factures were developing city life, actually making 
material increases. 35 This is not surprising, for 
there are instances when enough emigrants left a 
town in a body to perpetuate its town life in the 
new country. 36 Other towns long bore visible 
marks of their losses in the ruins of deserted houses 



13 Chatham, East Haddam, Bolton, Coventry, Hebron, Branford. 
Cheshire, Derby, Southbury, Wallingford, Waterbury, Woodbridge, 
Windham, Brooklyn, Lebanon, Voluntown, New Fairfield and Hartford. 

34 Ellington, Somers, Union, Voluntown, Franklin, Lisbon, Lyme, 
Preston, Stonington, Kent, New Hartford, Norfolk, Plymouth, Roxbury, 
Warren, Wolcott, Hampton, Sumeld, Tolland and Colchester. 

35 Middletown, New London, New Haven and Hartford made large 
additions to their population, no doubt from the entrance of laborers 
from the smaller towns. Hartford real estate, for instance, increased 
in value 400% from 1801 to 1818. Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 44. 
East Haddam, Bolton, Hebron, Union, Franklin, Stonington, Cole- 
brook, Cornwall, Sharon, Derby, East Haven, North Haven, Water- 
bury, Windham, Hampton, New Fairfield, Newtown, Norwalk, Sherman, 
Sumeld — all remained practically at a standstill during the decade. 

36 Danbury, Connecticut, to Danbury, Ohio. Plymouth to Plymouth, 
Ohio. New Canaan founded Stillwater, New York. Pease and Niles, 
Gazetteer, p. 53; Atwater, Plymouth, p. 429; Goodenough, Clergy of Litch- 
field, p. 14. 



152 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

and shops, or a standing chimney in a solitary 
field. 37 Looking at the total population of the 
state, the percentages of increase from 1790 to 
1800 are found to be five and four- tenths, from 
1800 to 1 8 10, four and three-tenths, and from 18 10 
to 1820, five as compared with thirty-five and one- 
tenth, thirty-six and four- tenths, and thirty- three 
and one-tenth for the United States. 

Not only the number, but the quality of the 
emigrants must be considered, in order to under- 
stand the state's loss and the nation's gain. 

Generally the emigrant was of the farming and 
laboring class, with a sprinkling of artisans and 
an occasional merchant of financial backing. Still, 
there were many professional men who sought 
relief from too keen competition. A number were 
Yale graduates. They were apt to be young 
lawyers who hoped for political preferment and 
wealth in the newer states. Some among them 
rose to high positions in their new homes, thereby 
demonstrating what their native state had lost 
in not being able to retain them by offering equal 
opportunities. This drain of the best blood dated 
back of the Revolutionary War, but became more 
noticeable as the call of western democracy echoed 
louder. 

Vermont was indebted to Litchfield County 
alone for her first governor, Thomas Chittenden, 
Ira and Ethan Allen, Governor Richard Skinner, 
Senator Samuel Phelps, Senator Horatio Seymour 

37 See Boyd, Winchester, p. 223; Roys, Norfolk, p. 22; Allen, Enfield, 
I, 51; Morris, Statistical Account, p. 17; Courant, Jan. 21, 1817. 



EMIGRATION AND WESTERN LANDS . 153 



and many others less widely known. 38 Into 
New Hampshire filtered many emigrants who 
rose to distinction in politics, in the college and 
the pulpit. Gideon Granger, later Postmaster- 
General, emigrated to New York. Martin Welles, 
the son of a Revolutionary general, Judge Hugh 
White, Thomas P. Grosvenor, Governor Daniel 
Dickinson, Philo Ruggles, Oliver Phelps, one of the 
largest land speculators of his age, Chief Justice 
Ambrose Spencer, General Peter iBuel Porter, Judge 
Frederick Whittlesey, Charles Perkins, Amos Bene- 
dict, and Isaac Baldwin were all leaders in New 
York at the bar, on the bench and in politics. 39 
Governor Samuel Huntington emigrated to the 
shore of Lake Erie. Stanley Griswold, the un- 
frocked Republican minister, first edited a Repub- 
lican paper at Walpole, New Hampshire, and 
later was appointed governor of Michigan Terri- 
tory. Horace Holley was called to the presi- 
dency of Transylvania College. Even Theodore 
D wight, the partisan Federalist, found greater 
prosperity as editor of an Albany paper. Rev. 
Azel Backus became president of Hamilton College, 
Georgia. This list 40 might be increased. Statis- 

38 Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 123; Kilbourne, Sketches, pp. 89, 
91, 117, 161, 277, 303-307; Church, Address, p. 50; G. H. Hollister, 
Connecticut, III, 598. 

39 Winslow Watson, Memoirs of Elkanah Watson, p. 414; Pease and 
Niles Gazetteer, pp. 88, 220, 275; Kilbourne, Sketches, pp. 187, 203, 
208, 273; Loomis and Calhoun, Judicial History, pp. 240, 252, 492, 
524, 528, 536, 561. 

40 Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, pp. 53, 240, 262, 294; Atkins, Middle- 
field, p. 21; Loomis and Calhoun, Judicial History, p. 237. 



154 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-18 18 

tics enough have been given to show the calibre of 
the men lost to the state and, incidentally, to the 
reform party. 

The state was highly wrought up over the emi- 
gration problem by 1817. Every influence was 
exerted to stem the ever-growing outward tide of 
fortune seekers. Editors and news-writers waged 
a mighty conflict. 41 The glowing descriptions of 
land speculators were exposed, though the effective- 
ness was often minimized, because of the obvious 
purpose in mind. Many were the accounts of 
floods and storms, and of unhealthy regions where 
men worked themselves into untimely graves. 
Stories were recounted of men broken down in 
spirit and fortune who pined for their forsaken 
hearths. Emphasis was placed on the burden- 
some privations of a land without churches, schools 
and roads. It was "a deplorable species of mad- 
ness," this going simply into the "West," with 
no idea of the particular section. Helpless, it was 
said, they were before avaricious speculators who, 
without a moral scruple, sold the untamed wilder- 
ness. Is the West an Eden for which the rest of the 

41 Humphreys, Discourse (1814), p. 15. For a few characteristic 
accounts, including an exposure of the Western Emigrant Society of 
Cincinnati, see Courant, Aug. 26, Sept. 30, Oct. 7, 21, 1817; Mercury, 
Sept. 30, 1817. The Farmer's Song from Portland Gazette in Courant, 
Dec. 9, 1817, expressed their views: 

Let the idle complain, 

And ramble in vain, 

An Eden to find in the West, 

They're grossly deceiv'd 

Their hearts sorely griev'd 

They'll sigh to return to the East. 



EMIGRATION AND WESTERN LANDS 155 

country should be deserted? This was the question 
for the prudent farmer and mechanic to consider. 
Men were advised not to be seduced from happi- 
ness by a log hut, but to ponder before the wild 
spirit of this epidemic. Better "tarry at Jericho," 
some counselled, than chance the so-called "prom- 
ised land." One newspaper strove to abate the 
delirium with the argument that: 

When the civil, social, literary and religious institutions 
of New England are taken into account, it seems the height 
of madness for men, who have no extraordinary reasons for 
removal, to leave their homes for the wild lands of the west, 
and their still wilder state of society. 42 

The editor of the New York Columbian, com- 
menting on the anxiety of Connecticut papers over 
the emigration furor, believed that the New Eng- 
lander was not inclined to migrate and hazard the 
unknown, but rather to bear ills. He observed 
that: 

Political disaffection and religious intolerance has, no 
doubt, been one considerable cause of emigrations from 
those states. By rendering it the interest and happiness 
of our population to stay at home, is the only way to check 
the rage. 43 

The economic causes which the neighboring editor 
overlooked were difficult to counteract. Those 
who urged argicultural [improvement and the en- 
couragement of manufactures were working along 
the right lines. In this way alone could prosperity 
be revived and population be kept at home. 

4 « Dedham Gazette in Courant, Sept. 30, 1817. 
42 Quoted in Mercury, Oct. 21, 1817. 



156 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Immigrants, on the other hand, seldom turned 
toward Connecticut. This could hardly be ex- 
pected, for a foreigner was not apt to choose a state 
whose own citizens were largely emigrating. Then, 
too, the immigrant, who rather feared the Puritan, 
heard the call of the West. Furthermore, the 
emigrant was welcomed in the new countries, 
whereas in Connecticut he was received with cold 
disfavor, not being able to hold land 'without 
a special legislative license. 44 President Dwight, 
who had a strange dread of the French spy system, 
looked with fear on the immigrant, even though he 
were headed for other states. 45 His misgivings in- 
dicate the general attitude, and explain the reason, 
as a traveller remarked, why "Foreign emigrants 
seem never to think of New England." 46 Stiles, as 
the exception, was always interested in immigration, 
and far-seeing enough to realize the important part 
it would play in American history: 

Manufactures and artizans, and men of every description, 
may perhaps come and settle among us. They will be few 
indeed in comparison with the annual thousands of our 
natural increase, and will be incorporated with the pre- 
vailing hereditary complexion of the first settlers; — We 
shall not be assimilated to them, but they to us, especially 
in the second and third generations. This fermentation 

44 Statutes, p. 350. A Republican bill introduced in Oct. 1817, to 
allow foreigners to hold land, was withdrawn because of the opposition 
lest all the rogues of Europe take advantage of it. Courant, Oct. 28. 

45 Decisions, Dispute 2. Cf. Morris, Statistical Account, p. 95: 
"Only two European families have settled in Litchfield [town]; they 
came from Ireland, and were respectable." See also Webster, Ten 
Letters, p. 25. 

46 Henry B. Fearon, Sketches of America, p. 99. 



EMIGRATION AND WESTERN LANDS 157 

and communion of nations will doubtless produce something 
very new, singular and glorious. 47 

The inhabitants were almost entirely of English 
descent, with a few French, Scottish or Irish people 
among them. David Field in his Statistical Ac- 
count of the County of Middlesex unconsciously 
emphasizes this point when he described the pauper 
class as universally natives, "as foreigners rarely 
reside with us long enough to become inhabi- 
tants." 48 Due to the lack of racial mixtures, 
there was a pride in the purity of their native blood, 
which in part accounted for the Connecticut atti- 
tude toward the foreigner and the feeling of su- 
periority to the cosmopolitan, frontier communi- 
ties. This offers an additional reason for the new- 
comer turning toward the states where all races 
intermingled. 

Yet a noticeable change appeared about 1815 
in the attitude toward immigration, even though 
not toward the individual immigrant. As emi- 
gration increased, as the population of towns 
dwindled, as labor became scarce and higher-priced, 
and as factories required more hands, an interest 
in immigration was aroused. There were jealous 
eyes cast on the new states, with their increasing 
population, greater wealth and political power. 

The Connecticut Courant lead the way by print- 
ing extracts from other papers dealing with immi- 

47 Sermon (1783), p. 50. In his diary and miscellanies he fre- 
quently noted the ship-loads from Ireland to America. 

48 P. 23. The Aurora commented on the paucity of foreigners, 
quoted in Mercury, Jan. 6, 1803. See Morse, Geography, p. 158; Web- 
ster, Ten Letters, p. 25; New Haven Hist. Soc, Papers, III, 176. 



158 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-181* 

gration. 49 Articles appeared, commenting in a 
hopeful tone on the enrichment of the country, 
through the labor, brawn, and ideals which the 
foreigner bartered for protection and freedom. 
Republican writers, seemingly, were winning over 
their opponents in this one respect at least. 
Governor Wolcott expressed a growing feeling 
when, in his address to the Legislature, he half 
lamented Connecticut's failure to win her quota 
of foreigners. 50 Another decade was destined to 
bring the immigrant when factories created a de- 
mand for his labor. 51 

2. Agriculture and Sheep Raising 

American agriculture in the beginning of the 
nineteenth century was generally admitted to be 
inferior to that of England. This must have been 
dismayingly apparent, to compel American recog- 
nition of the justice of foreign criticism. The 
conditions in Connecticut were no improvement 
on those prevailing elsewhere. 52 If anything, agri- 
culture was at a lower level. The characteristic 
conservatism of a rural community was here in- 
tensified by the constitutional conservatism of a 
Connecticut countryman. 

In England agricultural methods and implements 
had been improved by the experimental work and 

49 Courant, May 21, Sept. 9, 23, 24, 1816; Mercury, May 21, 1816. 

60 Mercury, Oct. 14, 1817. 

61 Article on Irish immigration, New Haven Hist. Soc, Papers; 
Allen, Enfield, 1, 51-52. The census of 1820 reported only 568 naturalized 
foreigners. 

52 Dwight, Travels, I, 81-82. 



AGRICULTURE AND SHEEP RAISING 159 

treatises of a number of scientific agriculturalists 
of whom Arthur Young is best known. The Tory 
land-holders could afford to experiment and hire 
the additional labor which intensified farming de- 
manded. They were endowed with enough enter- 
prise to try out the new ideas. The slow-moving 
squires were impressed with the results and followed 
the lead of the great landlords. Exceptionally good 
local and foreign markets during the Napoleonic 
Wars stimulated this interest in more scientific 
farming. 

In Connecticut the knowledge of the improve- 
ments in English farming had no effect. There 
was no class of large gentlemen-farmers to lead the 
way ; indeed there were few cultivators of large farms. 
The small freeholder, with his farm of 50 to 150 
acres, could not afford to be progressive. Afraid 
of a surplus, he preferred to continue in the way of 
his fathers, harvest a tolerable crop to meet the 
local demand rather than speculate on a wider 
market. The Napoleonic Wars created the mar- 
ket, but the Connecticut farmer failed to take full 
advantage of it, because of his neglect to improve 
his farm so as to meet western competition. To 
increase the output for a rather dubious sale, 
would have meant an outlay for labor, better 
implements, stock, seed, and fertilization. Care- 
ful rotation of crops would be necessary, as well 
as the introduction of new roots and grasses. 63 

53 Warden, in his Statistical Account, II, 27, estimated farms at 
from 50 to 200 acres, held in fee simple by men comfortably well to do, 
but not rich. In his Geographical Description, John Melish estimates 



160 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Rather than do this, he continue.^. % to scratch 
the top of an exhausted soil with an antiquated 
plow, sow home-grown seed on unharrowed fields 
and await the harvest. Indian corn, the staple 
crop, was cultivated as the aborigines had taught 
the first settlers, fertilized by white fish or sea 
weed. Potatoes, onions, and pumpkins for fodder 
were the standard vegetables. Crops of bar- 
ley, rye, oats and especially wheat were poor 
because of the poverty of the soil. Small apple 
orchards furnished apples for cider-brandy. Cattle 
were of the mixed "native" variety, neither beefers 
nor milkers. Still, in the aggregate the production 
of butter and cheese was large. Sheep were of a 
mongrel type, producing little wool. The "Narra- 
gansett" horse being too small, oxen were used 
for the heavy work of the farm, and horses chiefly 
for driving. Swine alone were considered up to 
the standard by foreign observers. This was the 
condition of farming in the early years of the 
nineteenth century, 54 when the era of improvement 
was inaugurated. 

from 50 to 500 acres, p. 166. Pease and Niles agree with the former 
in their Gazetteer, p. 214. The Cow ant, Dec. 16, 1817, in a list of farms 
for sale, has one of 1,170 acres. 

54 Material on this subject is available in the accounts of travellers 
like Dwight, Melish and Harriott; Webster, Farmers' Catechism (1790); 
Gen. James Warren's comparison of English and American farming in The 
American Museum (1787), II, No. 2; Rev. Jared Eliot of Killingworth 
wrote (1760) Essays on Field Husbandry in New England; and of great 
value is H. Newberry, Address before the Hartford County Agricultural 
Society, Oct. 1820. An excellent monograph is that of Percy Wells 
Bidwell, Rural Economy in New England at the Beginning of the Nine- 
teenth Century. 



AGRICULTURE AND SHEEP RAISING 161 

American leaders, with the turn of the century, 
became thoroughly imbued with the necessity of 
agricultural reform. Connecticut fell into line. 
Her statesmen encouraged the movement, on the 
patriotic grounds of cutting off all European lead- 
ing strings. Others saw new markets and hoped 
to compete for the domestic and foreign trade. 
Politicians displayed an interest in the farmer. 
Shippers saw an increase in the carrying trade. 
Provincially inclined men hoped to curtail western 
emigration, which was destined to weaken New 
England's power in the nation. 55 The Embargo and 
the War intensified the patriotic grounds. High 
prices and the extension of internal and coast trade 
lent force to argument. The siren-call of western 
lands and the damaging emigration only stimulated 
the movement, for it was rightly appreciated that 
by scientific working alone could Connecticut land 
compete with the fertile western fields. 56 Both 
parties, all newspapers, in fact every element in 
the community aided in bringing about what might 
be called an agricultural revolution. 

Agricultural societies were founded in order to 
educate the farmer. As these societies became 
the promoters of agricultural colleges a couple of 
generations later, it is interesting to record a Yale 
debate of 1789 on the question: "Whether it would 
be best to introduce agriculture into Colleges as a 

55 Courant, editorial, June 9, 1811, feared that the newer states in 
the Louisiana Purchase would render the North and East of as little 
weight in Congress as the Irish delegation in the Commons. 

56 Note II, p. 172. 



162 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

classical study." 57 Whatever the outcome of this 
particular debate, it is instructive in pointing out 
a current interest. The work of the Philadelphia 
Agricultural Society (1785) and the Massachusetts 
Society for the Promotion of Agriculture (1792) 
was followed closely by Connecticut readers. The 
New Haven County Agricultural Society was or- 
ganized about 1803. 58 The Berkshire Agricultural 
Society (181 1) and its president, Elkanah Watson, 
had as great influence as the later Connecticut 
societies of which it was the direct antecedent. 
The importance of its work for the New England 
farmer is not to be lightly estimated. 59 

Watson was an intimate correspondent of General 
Humphreys, who probably did more than any 
other for the industrial development of Connecti- 
cut during this period. In a splendid Address 
(1816) on the Agriculture of the State of Connecti- 
cut and the Means of Making it more Beneficial to 
the State, he pointed out that, while it was un- 
fortunate that the state had no staple product, 
yet with agriculture improving it would again 
prosper as "a commonwealth of farmers." To- 
ward this end, he gave the farmers a wealth of 
advice, saying: 

Those who remove, leave their farms behind them. Those 
who will occupy them, must endeavor to make these landed 
estates more productive by good husbandry. The best 
means to prevent emigration, will be to convince our 

57 Stiles, Diary, III, 355. 

58 The Mss. of its proceedings are preserved in the Yale Library. 

59 Watson, Memoirs, pp. 371-372; J. G. Holland, History of Western 
Massachusetts, I, 393-398. Elkanah Watson, A History of Agricul- 
tural Societies on the Modern Berkshire System. 



AGRICULTURE AND SHEEP RAISING 163 

citizens that old and worn out land can be renovated and 
enriched by labour and manure, so as to bear as good crops 
as land just cleared of its forests; and that at as little 
expense as the clearing would cost. . . . Our merchants 
and ship owners have done their duty. They have been 
in the number of our most enterprising and valuable citizens. 
Much praise is due them. But their occupation, like 
Othello's, is gone. Commerce is fled; manufactures lan- 
guish. The one may be brought back again, the other re- 
animated. Perseverance in agricultural improvements will 
contribute more than anything besides toward their happy 
re-establishment. 60 

In 1817, under the guidance of General Hum- 
phreys, the Connecticut Agricultural Society was 
incorporated. Governor Wolcott gave it his full 
support, having recommended such an organiza- 
tion in his address to the Legislature. This society 
published a model almanac of useful information 
to further the success of its educational campaign. 61 
The first issue contained an inspiring article by 
Humphreys on the dire necessity of encouraging 
agriculture. In 181 8 the Hartford County Agri- 
cultural Society was chartered with a system of 
town committees to bring the work down to 
the farm. Andrew Kingsbury and Henry Ells- 
worth were its leading officers. As indicative of 
the bitter partisan spirit of the town, this was 
largely a Federalist society laboring to disseminate 
agricultural information and incidentally to dem- 
onstrate to the farmer the advantages of the Feder- 
alist party. 62 Shortly afterward there followed the 

60 Pp. 15-17. 

61 Mercury, Oct. 14, Nov. 4, 1817; North American Review, II, 136. 

62 Courant, Sept. 30, Oct. 14, 1817; Mercury, Sept. 23, 1817; Mar. 
10, 31, 1818. 



164 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Litchfield County Agricultural Society under the 
presidency of the governor. The success of these 
societies is best attested by the establishment of 
similar organizations throughout the various states. 
Agricultural fairs were inaugurated by the agri- 
cultural societies, as one phase of their work. 63 
They were widely noticed in the newspapers and 
served to stimulate interest and rivalry in farm- 
ing communities. One of the first fairs in the 
country was called independently by a group of 
Berkshire farmers. This example was afterwards 
followed by the Berkshire Agricultural Society, 
which held a notable agricultural and domestic 
manufactures show at Pittsfield in 1811. Another 
in 1 816, known as the Pittsfield Cattle Show and 
Domestic Manufactures, created even a wider 
interest. The Brighton Cattle Show, which had 
for its purpose the improvement of stock breed- 
ing, was held in 1816 and annually thereafter under 
the patronage of the Massachusetts Agricultural 
Society. In 1818 the Hartford County Agri- 
cultural Society held its first annual celebration. 
There were prizes for the best cultivated farms, 
for bulls, milch cows, oxen, swine, for plowing, 
and for the products of domestic manufacture. 
General Humphreys's farm, with its private fairs, 
served as an experimental farm. Here he tried 
out new methods and, if successful, they were 
adopted by the neighboring farmers, and made 

63 Holland, Western Massachusetts, I, 393 ff.; North American Review, 
II, 136, 434; Mercury, Aug. 29, 1811; Oct. 20, 1818; Courant, Oct. 21, 
28, 1817. 



AGRICULTURE AND SHEEP RAISING 165 

known to the general public through his lectures 
and writings. 

Everyone contributed his share, for it was gener- 
ally desired to decrease emigration by the develop- 
ment of agriculture and domestic manufactures. 64 
If, as it was charged, "the sainted pilgrims call 
the men of industry and innocence, tag rag," it 
was an attitude about to be modified. Governor 
Trumbull's request in 1807 was heeded by the 
passage of an act putting a bounty of ten dollars 
a ton on hemp and flax. 65 Governor Wolcott was 
even more anxious for agricultural interests than 
his Federalist predecessors, urging the importance 
of facilitating agriculture in every possible way. 66 
Then, too, after the war shipping fell and forced 
the recognition of agriculture as the real basis of 
wealth. 

Newspapers printed columns of hints to farmers. 
Minister Adams at St. Petersburg wrote a treatise 
on the "Russian Method of Cultivating and Pre- 
paring Hemp," which the Connecticut Courant 
printed at length. A suggestive article on the 
conservation of timber sought to impress farmers 
with the advantages to be gained by husbanding 
the resources of the forests. The Courant also 
published a series of notes on the restoration of 
worn-out soils. 67 No stone was left unturned in 

6 * Mercury, Jan. 21, Oct. 7, 21, 1817; Mar. 10, 1818; Courant, Oct. 7, 
1817. See Ethan Andrews, Remarks on Agriculture (1819); Newberry, 
Address (1820), p. 7. , 

65 Statutes, p. 374; Mercury, May 28, 1807. 

66 Courant, Oct. 14, 1817. 

67 Courant, Apr. 10, 1811; Apr. 22, Sept. 9, 30, 1817, etc. 



166 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

order to instruct the farmer that with proper care 
his lands could be made quite as productive as the 
distant lands which called so enticingly. 

Interest in agriculture gave a zest to the con- 
struction of good roads which would shorten the 
distance to market. Capital was provided by the 
banks, whose directors were interested in the con- 
struction companies. Country roads were for the 
most part bad, being built by men desirous only 
of working out their poll tax. The year, 1800, 
ushered in turnpike companies whose business it 
was to build and maintain roads by the collection of 
tolls from their patrons. 68 While there were charges 
of corruption and favoritism, the companies served 
a useful purpose. Substantial roads were built in 
all sections of the state; stages made better time 
from New York via New Haven and Hartford to 
Boston. New London and Middletown were 
brought nearer to New Haven. Mail travelled 
more speedily. Farmers marketed their products 
with greater ease and less expenditure of time. 
The distant districts of Litchfield and Windham 
were especially improved, their lands rising in value. 

With the agricultural revolution there entered 
an interest in sheep-breeding. 69 Connecticut flocks 

68 For material on the roads, turnpike companies, and the steamboat 
lines to New York after 1815, see: Barber, New Haven, pp. 47-48; 
Caulkins, New London, p. 654; Orcutt, Stratford, I, 610; Weeden, Eco- 
nomic History, II, 693, 857; Church, Litchfield Centennial, p. 45; Larned, 
Windham County, II, 295; Bishop, American Manufactures, II, 127; 
Kendall, Travels, I, 97; Albert Gallatin, Report on Roads and Canals, 
p. 55; Beach, Cheshire, p. 256; Blake, Hamden, p. 94; Woodward, 
Hartford Bank, pp. 95-98; Giddings, New Milford, p. 110. 

69 Importation of blooded cattle came later. Courant, June 2, 1818. 



AGRICULTURE AND SHEEP RAISING 167 

were as they had been a century earlier, with no 
attempt at improvements such as English drovers 
had long been making. 70 As all weaving had been 
done at the hearth, only coarse cloths were woven, 
all of the finer fabrics being imported. Hence 
there was little demand for wool, which the farmer 
regarded as only an incidental by-product of the 
farm. 

Spanish merino sheep were practically unknown 
in America until 1802. Few were exported save 
by royal favor, so determined were the Spanish 
authorities to maintain their monopoly of the fine 
wool market. The few sheep which had been 
presented to foreign favorites had so improved 
foreign stock that France, Saxony, and Hesse 
Cassel were becoming dangerous competitors. 
Hence, Spanish precautions against smuggling be- 
came more painstaking. The American minister 
at Paris, Robert Livingston, becoming interested 
in the improvement of native sheep, sent to his 
estates at Clermont, New York, a few Spanish 
merinos from a French flock. In this same year 
General Humphreys shipped to his Derby farm a 
flock of seventy-five ewes and twenty- five rams. 71 
A friend of Washington and Jefferson, he had served 
as minister to Portugal from 1791 until 1797, when 
he was transferred to Madrid. While at the latter 
capital, he became a social figure among the Spanish 

70 Watson, Memoirs, p. 364; Wright, Wool-Growing, pp. 11-12. 

71 Sheep Industry, pp. 133, 154 ff.; Sharpe, Seymour, p. 49; Wright, 
Wool-Growing, p. 14. See Humphreys, Discourse on Agriculture (1816), 
and Livingston's classic Essay on Sheep (1810). 



168 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

grandees, from whom he acquired a deep knowledge 
and interest in Spanish sheep. Retiring at the 
end of the Adams administration, American custom 
would not allow him to accept the usual Spanish 
gift to a departing minister. At his suggestion he 
was tacitly permitted to send this flock of pure- 
blooded merinos to his Connecticut estate. This 
flock became the source of most of the early blooded 
sheep in the country; Humphreys one of two or 
three authorities on sheep culture; and his Con- 
necticut farm the center of the wool growers' 
interest as well as the seat of a model woolen 
factory. Humphreys was early awarded a gold 
medal for this importation by the Massachusetts 
Society for Promoting Agriculture, and somewhat 
later Connecticut gave him a testimonial in recog- 
nition of his public service. 

From 1802 to about 1807 the merinos were re- 
garded by the American farmer as a curiosity. 
In Connecticut the farmers could not be interested, 
do what Humphreys would. His influence caused 
the Legislature to protect the purity of the breed 
and encourage its extension. 72 Yet little could be 
done until the demand compelled wool-growing. 

With America shut off from foreign supply, 
there was created a demand for domestic wool. 
As Spanish wool could no longer be bought by 
England, the market price of wool rose. A sense 
of nationality was gradually awakening in men, and 
with it a patriotic impulse to support American 
industry and to wear home-spun. The farmer was 

72 Sheep Industry, p. 163; Statutes, pp. 597-598. 



AGRICULTURE AND SHEEP RAISING 169 

encouraged to grow wool, and the capitalist to 
weave cloth. Agricultural societies took up the 
propaganda. Interest in sheep grew during the 
years 1807 to 1812, until it seized the people in a 
sort of contagious mania. 73 Carding machines for 
this fine wool were soon to be found in every 
hamlet. Congress did its share by increasing the 
ad valorem duties on raw wool from 5 per cent in 
1789 to 35 per cent in 18 12. Patriotism combined 
with protection put sheep raising on a commercial 
basis. 

The demand for pure bloods could not be satisfied. 
As no more sheep could be imported, there was a 
jump in prices which enriched dealers and growers. 
In 1806 Humphreys was glad to get $300 for a 
ram and two ewes; in 1808 he sold a ram for $1,000. 
In 1 810 he sold four rams and ewes at $1,500 apiece 
to a stock farmer in Kentucky, though full-blooded 
rams were usually rated at $1,000. Livingston 
at a shearing at his Clermont farm in 1810 sold 
full-blooded lambs at that figure. He refused $500 
for fifteen-sixteenth bloods. He would not take 
less than $250 for seven-eighths. In 1806, $100 
and $40 and $50 were the figures quoted. 74 In 
1809 Rev. Thomas Robbins commented on his 
brother's offer of $300 for a yearling lamb: "The 
demand for these sheep is astonishing." 75 

73 Courant, May 9, 1810; Mercury, Oct. 24, 1811; Wright, Wool- 
Growing, pp. 21 ff.; Watson, Memoirs, p. 364; Larned, Windham County, 
II, 399; Sheep Industry, pp. 161 ff. 

74 Sheep Industry, pp. 139, 143, 166 ff.; Wright, Wool-Growing, p. 23; 
H. S. Randall, Fine Wool Sheep Husbandry, p. 45; Sharpe, Seymour, 
p. 59; Courant, July 11, 1810. 

75 Diary, I, 414. 



170 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

One is not so surprised at these fabulous prices, 
when the price of common wool at thirty-seven 
and a half cents is compared with that of the 
merino at seventy-five cents to two dollars a pound. 
There was another advantage, for it was found 
that crossing merino with common sheep would 
double the shearing of wool. These facts became 
widely known through the educative efforts of 
agricultural societies and fairs, such as the Phila- 
delphia Cattle Show, at which Humphreys was a 
competitor. Then there were articles on merino 
culture and descriptions of the shearings on the 
estates of Humphreys, Livingston, and other grow- 
ers. 76 Hence the great demand and the high 
prices are not difficult to understand. 

Connecticut was a center of the mania. Merino 
advertisements were in every newspaper. Auc- 
tions were announced and larger rewards were 
offered for the return of lost sheep than for run- 
away negroes. Some felt that in wool New 
England had at last found her staple, that in 
Connecticut wool would play the part cotton did 
in the South. At a Clermont shearing this idea 
was expressed in the toast: "Merino wool as 
common in the North as cotton in the South." 77 
This was not incomprehensible when there were 
estimated to be 400,000 sheep in the state in 1813. 78 

76 Courant, May 31, July 11, 1810; Mercury, June 28, 1810; Bishop, 
American Manufactures, II, 135; Sheep Industry, p. 166. 

77 Mercury, June 28, 1810. 

78 Courant, May 25, 1813; North American Review, I, 169; Coxe, 
Tables, pp. 22, 31; Mercury, July 4, 1811. 



AGRICULTURE AND SHEEP RAISING 171 

In 1810-1811, while Spain was sacrificing all 
in a crusading uprising against Napoleon, her 
cabanas were broken up. Thousands of sheep were 
eaten by the ravaging armies, flocks were stolen 
by the French, and thousands were exported or 
smuggled via Portugal into England. To obtain 
a war fund, the Junta commenced to sell the choicest 
stock. During that year it is estimated that 
nearly 20,000 full-blooded sheep were introduced 
into America. 79 Prices fell from $1,000 to $300 
and finally to $100. Rams and ewes from the 
famed flocks of the Carthusian friars were scat- 
tered throughout New England. Spain's difficulty 
became America's opportunity. While war cut 
off the supply in 1812, there were plenty of 
sheep in the country for stock purposes, so the 
only result of importance was in steadying the 
price and increasing the woolen market. Patriot- 
ism and nationalism encouraged American wool- 
raising until it outgrew the infant stage. 

Peace brought English competition which easily 
beat down patriotism — a fact which the people 
found somewhat hard to reconcile with the high 
war prices. Politically it is not likely that sheep 
growing had much of an effect. As Connecticut 
farms were generally cultivated by their owners, 
there was no class of agricultural laborers to be 
displaced by sheep-enclosures, as had been the 
case elsewhere. On the other hand, sheep grow- 

79 Courant, Nov. 14, 1810; Mar. 27, 1811; Mercury, Sept. 27, 1810; 
Wright, Wool-Growing, pp. 23 ff. For lower prices, see advertisements, 
Courant, Feb. 18, Sept. 7, 1813. 



172 



CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 



ing introduced woolen factories and thus assisted 
in creating a city laboring class which was destined 
to become a political factor. 

NOTES 
I. The Ohio Frontier 

That men knew Ohio is not to be doubted. Yet one is surprised 
at the perspicacity of a Vermont boy quoted as having written home 
in 1817: "As to the people, the first settlers were a mixed multitude 
from all the other American States and of the most of the European 
Kingdoms, composed of adventurers, knaves, fools, unfortunates, and 
some honest and enterprising men. There are many who have always 
lived on the frontiers, and form a connecting link between savage and 
civilized life. The offspring of all have had their education from chance. 
Sojourners from every nation and climate under heaven, with all their 
jarring ideas of civil policy which their different forms of government 
could suggest, have been their teachers. People of wealth and cultiva- 
tion are flocking in from every quarter." Courant, January 14, 1817. 



II. Table Showing Rising Prices 

Rev. Heman Humphrey, in the appendix of one of his sermons 
printed in 1816, undertook to prove to the prosperous farmers that 



Wheat 

Rye 

Corn 

Pork 

Beef 

Butter 

Sugar, loaf 

Sugar, best brown 

Molasses, gal 

Salt, bushel 

Hay 

Wood, cord 

Labor, day 



1774 


1798 


$ -71 


$ 1.42 


.46 


.67 


.35 


.50 


3.36 


6.00 


3.00 


4.17 


.11 


.17 


.17 


.33 


9.00 


16.00 


.33 


.75 


.42 


1.00 


6.67 


10.00 


1.50 


3.00 


.42 


.67 



1811-1816 



$ 2.00 

1.00 

.83 

8.00 

5.00 

.17 

.17 

13.00 

.67 

1.00 

10.00 

5.00 

.75 



to 2.50 
to 1.25 
to 1.00 
to 10.00 
to 7.00 
to .25 
to .50 
to 22.00 
to 1.00 
to 1.17 
to 20.00 
to 6.00 
to 1.00 



AGRICULTURE AND SHEEP RAISING 173 

high prices had increased the minister's cost of living and lowered his 
net salary. His figures bear the earmarks of accuracy, part of them 
being collected by a committee of his society. They show the vast in- 
crease in the value of farm products, which resulted in the encourage- 
ment of agriculture. Other accounts notice the great fall in value of 
agricultural products about 1816, probably a little later than the date 
of his information, some going so far as to say that the products of the 
farm were hardly worth the garnering. Dwight, Connecticut, p. 440; 
Mercury, Oct. 22, 1816; see also New Haven Hist. Soc, Papers, III, 
201-202. 



CHAPTER V 

The Working Government 

HPHE government of Connecticut prior to 1776 
-■" was based upon the royal Charter of 1662. 
This Charter in substance was similar to the eleven 
Fundamental Orders of 1639, which had been 
drafted by the representatives of the river towns 
as their rule of government. This similarity has 
enabled certain writers to maintain that the Char- 
ter was royal only in form, but otherwise a re- 
statement of republican principles. Furthermore, 
it has been said that the Charter was in force by 
virtue not of the prerogative, but of its acceptance 
by the General Assembly. However this may be, 
the Charter was regarded as the bulwark of the 
commonwealth's liberties, if the Charter-Oak 
episode had real significance. Yet the simple 
governmental machinery provided in that instru- 
ment was never regarded as fundamental, but sub- 
ject to modification by the General Assembly. 
Distance and lack of interest in the colony on the 
part of the home government made the bond of 
union between the two so loose that, aside from an 
extremely rare case of a disallowance, the colony 
was left to follow its own course. The common- 
wealth was virtually a self-governing dependency, 
with the dependence overlooked by the republican 
subjects, and the independence unrealized by the 
inefficient and corrupt colonial administration. 

174 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 175 

The change wrought by the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence and severance of nominal allegiance was 
almost unnoticed. Statehood with full indepen- 
dence and sovereignty was entered into so natu- 
rally that there was no commotion or the slightest 
impediment in the civil administration. As has 
often been pointed out, a change in the govern- 
ment was unnecessary, for Connecticut had always 
been republican in form. As a result of the Revo- 
lution and the appeal of the revolutionary Congress, 
the General Assembly formally approved the 
Declaration of Independence, declaring that "this 
Colony is and of a right ought to be a free and 
independent State, and the inhabitants thereof 
are absolved from all allegiance to the British 
Crown." The resolution continued: 

And be it enacted by the Governor, Council and Representa- 
tives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the 
same, That the form of civil government in this State 
shall continue to be as established by Charter received 
from Charles the second, King of England, so far as an 
adherence to the same will be consistent with an absolute 
independence of this State on the Crown of Great Britain; 
and that all officers, civil and military, heretofore ap- 
pointed by this State continue in the execution of their 
several offices, and the laws of this State shall continue in 
force untill otherwise ordered: And that for the future all 
writs and processes in law or equity shall issue in the name 
of the Governor and Company of the State of Connecticut; 
and that in all summonses, attachments, and other processes 
before any assistant or justice of the peace, the words One 
of his Majesty's justices of peace be omitted, and that in- 
stead thereof be inserted justice of the peace; and that no 
writ or process shall have or bear any date save the year of 
our Lord Christ only; any law usage or custom to the con- 
trary notwithstanding. 



176 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Oaths of loyalty to the state were substituted for 
those of allegiance and supremacy. Otherwise there 
was no break with the past; the same policies con- 
trolled, the same class ruled. 1 

All the states save Rhode Island drafted con- 
stitutions, often in conventions selected for that 
purpose, and submitted them for ratification to 
the people or their representatives. Connecti- 
cut's unusual procedure attracted little attention 
and aroused no opposition. This was probably 
due to general recognition of the step as a mere 
formality, which did not essentially change the 
working government, based as it was on precedent 
and legislative enactments rather than on the 
Charter. 

Interest in the proceedings remained purely 
academic until later, when they were made a party 
issue. Men of all shades of opinion were free to 
question whether or not there was a constitution 
in the approved sense of the word. Dr. Benjamin 
Gale, in an able pamphlet published in 1782, argued 
that the state in making war had abrogated the 
Charter and that the General Assembly's unau- 
thorized declaration re-establishing the Charter- 
government was expedient, but extra-legal, and 
regarded by thinking men as only temporary. 
He believed that the time had come when a civil 
government should be established by a convention, 
holding that: 

1 Conn. State Records, I, 3-4; Revised Statutes, p. 1. See Stiles, 
Diary, II, 285; Morse, Geography, p. 165; Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, 
p. 75; Swift, System of the Laws, I, 40-43; Kendall, Travels, I, ch. 7. 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 177 

It ought to be a work of time, and composed of men well 
versed in government, well acquainted with the laws of 
nature and nations, men who well understand, not only the 
civil, but the natural, the religious, the unalienable rights 
of men and of Christians .... Our charter carefully 
examined .... everything retained, the advantage of 
which we have experienced — Everything expurged we have 
found on experience disadvantageous; the several constitu- 
tions of our sister states carefully inspected, and every- 
thing worthy of our imitation selected. 

The constitutional question was first officially 
considered in the Assembly in the fall and spring 
sessions of 1786-1787. 2 A bill restricting the repre- 
sentation to one member from every town had been 
introduced. Thereupon Representative Hopkins 
of Waterbury questioned their authority: "It is a 
constitutional question. The people are the foun- 
tain of power, and must agree if the mode is altered. 
The Assembly cannot do it. It is a native right 
of the people." Against this James Davenport of 
Stamford argued that there was no constitution, 
only the laws of the state, for as the Revolution 
abrogated the Charter, its subsequent sanction by 
the General Assembly had only the force of an 
ordinary statute. Colonel Wadsworth agreed: "I 
am in favor of the Bill . . . The same body 
who made the Constitution can alter it at pleasure." 
Wadsworth was historically correct, for in the 
Revised Statutes of 1784 a statutory Declaration 
of Rights reaffirmed the act of 1776. 

Dr. Gale in 1787 wrote confidentially to General 
Erastus Wolcott, a member of Congress, that the 

2 Connecticut Magazine, quoted in Mercury, Aug. 15, 1805. 



178 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

state had no constitution; for, as "you know 
. . . . a civil constitution is a charter, a bill of 
rights, or a compact made between the rulers and the 
ruled." This, he said, was not true in the case of 
the Charter, which had never been submitted to 
the freemen. 3 In 1791 a pamphlet by "a citizen 
of New Haven" demanded that a convention be 
summoned to draw up a constitution which would 
be above criticism. 4 

A writer in the Middlesex Gazette pointed out in 
1792 the absurdity of a government establishing 
its own constitution, and asked that steps be taken 
to establish a constitution or to improve the Char- 
ter. He exclaimed: 

Why has Connecticut discovered less political wisdom 
than her sister states? Why has its government been left 
the sport of chance, or to the partial corrections of the legis- 
lature; and to remain, until this time, in a state so loose, in 
a form so shapeless and distorted? Why have ten years 
of peace, so favorable to political improvement, been suf- 
fered to pass away, without any amelioration of the system 
of government? Can the people be forever lulled into 
this calm indifference, this listless security, by the emp- 
ty and groundless declaration, that they have derived 
from their ancestors a free and excellent Constitution of 
Government. 5 

The Litchfield Monitor in 1793 printed an address 
attacking the royal principles and language of the 
Charter and the unwarranted assumption of the 
Legislature in saddling it on the people. It criti- 
cized the insecurity of a government semi-annually 

3 J. Hammond Trumbull, Historical Notes, pp. 16-17. 

4 Ibid., pp. 17-18. 

6 Quoted in Mercury, Apr. 4, 1805. 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 179 

subject to change at the hands of men as absolute 
as any "Grand Signior": 

You profess republican principles, but tacitly submit 
to the ordinances of despotism. You hold to the rights of 
men, but have not established the enjoyment of them. 
You hold that the people are the origin of power, but have 
never attempted to exercise that power .... You 
have now enjoyed a number of years of profound peace; 
but never set yourselves to form a Constitution. A time 
more favorable can never be expected; a business of greater 
utility can never be attempted. Such is your present 
Constitution, that some affirm it is no Constitution at all; 
but a public Ordinance or an Edict; while others affect 
to consider it as a very good Constitution. But look about 
you my countrymen; take it up and view it in all its parts 
and properties, and see if it breathes the genuine spirit of 
republicanism. You will doubtless find it a conglomerated 
mass of heterogeneous principles .... A repub- 
lican Constitution is a voluntary compact of the people 
establishing certain fundamental principles by which they 
will be governed. 6 

Only a few, however, doubted the legality of the 
constitution. Judge Swift in 1795 set forth the 
orthodox view that in 1776 the people might have 
called a convention, but did not deem it necessary, 
for, back of the Charter, their government was 
grounded on the will of the people. Since 1776 
the tacit consent of the people in obeying the laws 
and following the old forms of civil procedure had 
amounted to sanctioning the act of the General 
Assembly, even though the legality of its power 
might be disputed. Swift wrote: 

The constitution of this state is a representative republic. 
Some visionary theorists have pretended that we have no 

6 May 23, quoted in Mercury, Oct. 24, 1805. 



180 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

constitution, because it has not been reduced to writing, 
and ratified by the people. It is, therefore, necessary to 
trace the constitution of our government to its origin, for 
the purpose of showing its existence, that it has been ac- 
cepted and approved of by the people, and is well known 
and precisely bounded. 7 

The constitutionality of the government was 
generally regarded by Swift as proven. When 
party strife became bitter, to argue that there was 
no constitution in the modern sense branded one 
a Jacobin. 

Such were the current constitutional theories. 
It is now necessary to consider the working govern- 
ment of the state, which was far removed from the 
written Charter-constitution. 

The chief executive was the governor, with the 
title of "His Excellency." 8 The position was one of 
great respectability and honor, having wide in- 
fluence, but little actual power. The governor 
was elected annually by the freemen of the state 
voting secretly in town meeting. The votes were 
forwarded to the secretary of state and counted 
on the general election day by a committee of the 
General Assembly. If a candidate received a 
majority he was declared elected, otherwise the 
General Assembly named the governor. While 
the term of office was nominally a year, in practice it 

7 System of the Laws, I, 55, 56 ff. 

8 For a discussion of the governorship, see: Conn. State Records, 
I, 52, 229. II, 86; Statutes, pp. 201, 257, 258, 296, 423, 504; Swift, 
System of the Laws, I, 60, 63, 65, 85-87; Kendall, Travels, I, 20; Dwight, 
Travels, I, 228, 237, 248, 257; Nelson P. Mead, Connecticut as a Cor- 
porate Colony, pp. 21-24; New Haven Hist. Soc, Papers, III, 65. 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 181 

was for life or during good behavior, for throughout 
the whole history of the state from John Winthrop to 
Oliver Wolcott, there had been but seventeen occu- 
pants of the office, and during the eighteenth century 
only three governors had failed of re-election. 9 While 
there was no religious test, the steady habit of the 
state had been to elect no ungodly man or dissenter, 
but a representative of one of the old families and 
occasionally the son of a former governor. 

During the colonial period Connecticut had a 
wholesome fear of too powerful an executive. 
The lesson of an Andros had been well taught and 
the difficulties of sister colonies with royal gover- 
nors had not passed unnoticed. Hence in 1776 
the executive was allowed to remain weak in com- 
parison with the legislature. 

The Connecticut governor was not, as in many 
states, a separate branch of the government. He 
had no veto power, being but an ex officio pre- 
siding member of the Upper Chamber or Council. 
Aside from calling extra sessions on fourteen days' 
notice, he had no power to adjourn or prorogue the 
General Assembly. The governor assisted in the 
formalities of Election Day, opening the Assembly 
with an address, which advised certain policies and 
gave an account of the state's progress since the 
last meeting. Thanksgiving Day and the annual 
fast, being determined upon by the Assembly, were 
formally announced by the governor. As com- 
mander-in-chief of the state militia, he appointed 

9 Wolcott for misrepresentation; Fitch because of the Stamp Act; 
Griswold because of advanced age. Dana, Two Discourses, pp. 43-44. 



182 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

an adjutant- general and a couple of aides, signed 
the commissions of officers approved by the General 
Assembly, and possessed ill-defined powers of dis- 
missal. He signed the commissions of justices of 
the peace, and was himself an honorary ex officio 
justice throughout the state. From 1793 to 1808 
the governor sat twice a year as president of the 
court of errors. He had no pardoning power 
save the right to reprieve a criminal until the 
next General Court or Assembly. His patronage 
amounted to nothing but the right to name ad 
interim turnpike commissioners and the petty 
notary publics. Hence it would be impossible for 
an ambitious man to build up a personal following 
through his appointive power, as could be done in 
some states. 

In brief, the governor's powers were restricted to 
the lowest working minimum, just enough to per- 
mit the smooth administration of business and to 
allow him to serve as the communicating medium 
between the state, the central government and the 
other states. It was pointed out that the executive 
need not be powerful, for Connecticut was a mem- 
ber of a federation of states, with many delegated 
powers in the hands of the federal government. 
There would then be less danger of a conflict with 
the central government. 

The chief criticism was that certain towns 
monopolized the office: for instance, Hartford had 
furnished seven out of a total of twenty-three 
governors. This localization was due to the ad- 
vantage which influential men, who were apt to 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 183 

be from the chief towns, had under the system of 
election. The dissenter was grieved that none of 
his class could achieve the distinction. The Re- 
publican disliked the undemocratic idea of repeated 
re-elections, but the most penurious could not 
object to the salary of $1,000, which was con- 
sidered small enough to guard against the cupidity 
of an office-seeker. 10 

Some executive power was lodged in the hands 
of governor and Council, but here the governor's 
identity was completely submerged in the Council. 11 
Together, they appointed a sheriff for everyone of 
the eight counties, and a quartermaster-general 
of the militia. They could lay temporary embargoes 
on the export of goods, enforce sanitary rules in 
case of contagious diseases, and grant briefs for 
charitable collections. 

The lieutenant governor, 12 addressed as "His 
Honor" and having a salary of $600, was an ex- 
officio member of the Council and a justice of the 
peace throughout the state. In the absence of the 
governor he acted in his place. From 1741 to 
1785 the lieutenant governor had the added honor 
of being chief judge of the superior court. From 
the time of Governor Joseph Talcott (1741) to 

10 " Connecticut's governmental expenses are brought within the 
narrowest point of parsimony, salaries are provident to a proverb." 
Mercury, Aug. 5, 1802. 

11 Statutes, p. 201, index; Kendall, Travels, I, 22; Dwight, Travels, 
I, 248; Mead, Corporate Colony, pp. 24-27. 

12 Conn. State Records, I, 52. II, 86; Statutes, pp. 201, 296, 493, 
504; Dwight, Travels, I, 229, 237; Swift, System of the Laws, I, 63, 83; 
Johnston, Connecticut, pp. 80-81. 



184 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

1818, he succeeded the governor, so faithfully did 
the electorate reward their officials. 

The state treasurer 13 was also annually elected, 
although in practice his tenure was for life. The 
treasurer was under a $5,000 bond to preserve 
scrupulously the state's revenues in the way of 
taxes, duties on writs, fines, and forfeitures, and to 
present his accounts on demand for auditing. 
An auxiliary officer, called a comptroller, was 
created by the General Assembly in 1788 to super- 
intend the finances. 14 Apparently this was an 
attempt on the part of the Legislature to obtain 
more direct control over the budget, for the 
annually appointed comptroller was merely an 
agent of the General Assembly. 

The secretary of state 15 completes the list of 
central executive officers. Here was another an- 
nually elected official whose administration was 
longer than the average reign of a sovereign. In- 
deed the tenure smacked strongly of heredity. 
Hezekiah Wyllys was succeeded by his son and 
grandson, the three covering a period of years from 
1712 to 181 o. Thomas Day, succeeding, served 
from 1 810 to 1835. To consider such an office as 
elective is difficult. It is not surprising that its 
occupants regarded the secretaryship as a personal 

13 Statutes, index; Conn. State Records, II, 86; Swift, System of the 
Laws, I, 60, 89. Joseph Whiting and son served 1679-1749, Andrew 
Kingsbury, 1794-1818, and Isaac Spencer, 1818-1835. 

14 Statutes, pp. 188-190; Swift, System of the Laws, I, 90; Loomis 
and Calhoun, Judicial History, pp. 121-123. 

15 Statutes, pp. 30, 589; Swift, System of the Laws, I, 88; Loomis and 
Calhoun, Judicial History, pp. 199 ff. 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 185 

possession. The secretary acted as clerk of the 
Council, custodian of the state records and papers, 
keeper of the seals, and supervised the printing of 
the laws. The position was one of honor with a 
considerable degree of influence. 

The appointment of sheriffs was the chief admin- 
istrative function of the governor and Council. 
To the Council alone was the sheriff responsible. 
As the connecting link between the central and 
local government, he was a power in the locality. 
He was invariably a stanch adherent of the rul- 
ing order. His duties were defined by statute 
rather than by English precedents, and did not in- 
clude the judicial work of his English counterpart. 
Bonded at $1,000, he had custody of jails and 
prisoners, and was empowered to appoint deputy 
sheriffs, summon a posse comitatus, call out the 
militia on request of members of the Council, and 
exercise the duties of a water-bailiff. 16 

The General Assembly was composed of an 
upper and a lower chamber, a Council and the 
Assembly. 17 With a weak executive and a depen- 
dent judiciary, the legislative branch became 
supreme. Its powers were not limited by a written 
constitution, nor in any way except by statutes, 
which it might revise or repeal at will. The Revolu- 
tion had freed the General Assembly of the royal dis- 

16 Statutes, index; Swift, System of the Laws, I, 60, 90-93; D wight, 
Travels, I, 248; Loomis and Calhoun, Judicial History, p. 167. 

17 The division, which had existed since 1698, was regarded as con- 
trary to the Charter and was not placed on the statutes until 1776. 
Baldwin in Amer. Hist. Assoc, Report (1890), p. 91. 



186 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

allowance, its sole check, so that it closely approxi- 
mated the British Parliament, save that the latter 
body had to be guided by an ill-defined royal pre- 
rogative and century-long creations of precedent 
and custom. The federal constitution limited the 
state sovereignty, but not that of the Legislature 
in state affairs. 

The General Assembly 18 made and repealed all 
laws. It defined the powers of the executive or 
judiciary. It determined by statute the method 
of election and the suffrage qualifications. Legis- 
lative statutes defined the relation of church and 
state, and the status of dissenter. Toleration 
was its gift, not a human right. Liberty of the 
press and of speech were subject to its laws. 
Statutes which might revolutionize the state could 
be enacted in the same way as a private act 
of no importance. There was no appeal to the 
people and no responsibility to the electors, save 
in the desire of the representative to be re-elected. 
Money bills originated in either House; taxes and 
duties were levied; public lands disposed of; new 
towns incorporated; and banking, manufacturing 
and turnpike companies chartered. The General 
Assembly occasionally named the governor and 
lieutenant governor, a power which gave undue 
influence over the executive. 19 A joint committee 
counted the votes of state officers, save represen- 

18 For its powers, see: Statutes, index; Swift, System of the Laws, 
I, 71-76, 80, 86; Kendall, Travels, I, 25; Dwight, Travels, I, 237 ff. 

19 Stiles, Diary, III, 21, 218; Ford, Webster, I, 76; Courant, May 
14, 1798. 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 187 

tatives. The General Assembly, of course, selected 
the United States Senators. It exerted a control- 
ling influence over nominations by means of its 
caucuses, and in case of a vacancy appointed a coun- 
cilor. Any court, magistrate, or officer might be 
called to account by the Legislature for a misdemea- 
nor or for maladministration. It granted pardons 
and reprieves in capital or criminal cases, bills of di- 
vorce, passed special bankruptcy acts, and con- 
sidered equity cases over $5,334. In a judicial 
capacity it acted as the superior court of last resort. 
In this way justice might be defeated and sover- 
eignty substituted for law. It had complete con- 
trol of the militia. Its patronage was dangerously 
extensive, including military officers who had been 
nominated by the militia and all judicial officers. 

Legislative powers were in short limited only by 
the honesty of members, by certain vague customs, 
and the frequency of elections. Students of govern- 
ment feared this outrageous combination of execu- 
tive, legislative, and judicial powers, as only 
disciples of Montesquieu could fear. This con- 
centration of power in the General Assembly was 
bitterly criticized and was a prime argument for a 
written constitution. 

Dwight recognized the inclusiveness of these 
powers when he wrote: "The power of the legisla- 
ture is considered unlimited, except with respect 
to the rights of election, and the substance of the 
form of government." 20 He felt, however, that 
the altering of the Charter would be regarded as a 

20 Travels, I, 236. 



188 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

violation of something sacred and as a hazardous 
move. He believed that a civil law contrary to 
the law of God would be null and void. Judge 
Swift, the deepest student of Connecticut polity, 
defined the position of the Legislature: 

By nature of the constitution, they possess the power of 
doing and directing whatever they shall think to be for the 
good of the community. It is difficult to define or limit its 
extent. It can be bounded only by the wants, the necessi- 
ties, and the welfare of society. 21 

Kendall agreed with the local commentators 
on the powers of the General Assembly, which he 
described as a body — 

from which, indeed, all other authority proceeds, and by 
which, at any moment, it may be reclaimed. Nothing 
exists but at its pleasure. It makes laws, and it repeals 
them; and in the laws is the sole foundation of the political 
fabric; the constitution of government is to be found only 
in the statutes. In a word, the General Assembly is truly 
the single depository of power; of power at once governmen- 
tal, legislative, and judiciary; at once civil, military, and 
ecclesiastical. 22 

Kendall struck the mark. This inclusive power 
which so impressed him, caused men to demand 
its curtailment. 

The Assembly represented the towns, every town 
having one or two representatives. They were 
elected semi-annually in the April and September 
freemen's meetings, by a majority of the qualified 
electors. The frequency of election caused no 
inconvenience because of the small areas of the 

21 System of the Laws, I, 59, 73. 

22 Travels, I, 23. 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 189 

constituencies, but made changes in the representa- 
tion easy and lessened intrigue. Terms of service 
were exceedingly long because of "the disposition 
to re-elect men of merit." In many cases a family 
represented its town for two or three decades. 23 

Despite the "almost absolutely democratic" 
scheme of election, Republicans were to learn that 
to displace the old representatives of a town re- 
quired considerable exertion. Yet this could be 
done. It was by revolutionizing the Assembly and 
electing a Republican here and there, that the state 
was ultimately revolutionized. Had there been a 
universal secret ballot, thus removing the influence 
of family, office-holders, and ministers, the state 
would have experienced more changes in its repre- 
sentation, and the Republicans less difficulty in 
| gaining control. 

The Assembly 24 was composed of two hundred 

members, with a legal quorum of forty. Any free- 

i man was eligible to serve as a representative, unless 

'he was a federal office-holder, or a judge of the 

(Superior court. As the statutes stood, the most 

infamous freeman was not excluded from a seat, 

; nor could a duly elected representative be expelled, 

i unless for treason or felony. The Assembly elected 

' ts own speaker who had a casting vote, and the 

j clerks who kept the official journal. The Chamber 

] adjudged the qualifications and credentials of its 

members; administered their oaths; and deter- 

23 Johnston, Connecticut, pp. 81-82; Bouton, Norwalk, pp. 55-56; 
Kilbourne, Sketches, pp. 375 S. 

24 Best accounts are: D wight, Travels, I, 236-238; Swift, System of 
the Laws, I, 64-65, 70, 85. 



190 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

mined its own procedure. Its members were 
guaranteed the usual privileges of freedom of 
speech and freedom from arrest. 

In connection with the May session Connecti- 
cut had her one "great festival" — General Election 
Day, 25 when the votes were formally counted. At 
sunset of the previous day the governor was re- 
ceived by the blue, uniformed horse-guards and 
escorted to his lodgings. About 9 a.m. the Assem- 
ably met and organized. Toward 11 a.m. an 
escort of the foot and horse-guards followed by 
the sheriffs, led the executive officers, councilors, 
representatives, a large body of ministers and 
citizens to the First Church. The religious services 
were conducted by four ministers, one minister 
giving the opening prayer, another the sermon, a 
third the concluding prayer, and the fourth the 
benediction. The sermon touched on matters of 
government, setting forth the glories of the state, 
lauding its steady habits, and praising its God- 
fearing officials. The Hartford Courant com- 
mented on the sermon in what seems to have been 
a set form, "sensible, solemn, and evangelical," 
while the American Mercury was apt to describe 
it as in "the usual style of obsequiousness to the 
dominant party." Abraham Bishop cynically but 
aptly characterized them as political sermons — 

in which there is a little of governor, a little of congress, 
much of politics and a very little of religion — a strange 

25 Kendall, Travels, I, ch. 1; Dwight, Travels, I, 233 ff.; Courant' 
May 18, 1813; Asbury, Journal, III, 197; Stiles, Diary, II, 533. Ill, 
218; Morse, Geography, p. 165. 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 191 

compost, like a carrot pye, having so little ingredients of 
the vegetable, that the cook must christen it. 26 

The procession then returned to the state house 
where the militia presented arms to the governor. 
There followed a public dinner, at which the 
governor and Council sat at the first, the clergy 
at the second, and the representatives at the third 
table, in an order suggestive of the three estates. 
The dining of the assembled clergy, often a hundred 
in number, was objected to by the Republicans as 
a burden to the tax payer and an indication of the 
dangerous coalition of magistrate and minister. 
This criticism would have failed, if dissenting 
preachers had been welcomed at the festive board. 
After the banquet the votes were counted, and the 
oaths of office administered to governor, lieutenant 
governor and councilors. The result was pro- 
claimed with a military salute. In the evening 
there was an election ball, and the following eve- 
ning a more select, formal ball. Thousands flocked 
to Hartford from the near-by towns to witness the 
ceremonies. Even those unable to be present 
played at ball and enjoyed themselves that day on 
the town greens. 

Aside from the opening formalities, the session 
was marked by simplicity. Meetings were held 
during both forenoon and afternoon, and there were 
few absentees. While the " wages" of two dollars 
a day were small, election to the Assembly was 
an honor, appealing to men of considerable ability. 

26 Bishop, Oration (1801), pp. 45-46. 



192 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

An English traveller was so impressed with the 
debates that he described them as comparing 
favorably with those of Parliament. 27 

The Assembly was criticized as too large a body 
for efficient work. As early as 1782 it was sug- 
gested that the representation should be cut down 
to one for every town. New York, with seventy 
men in her Lower House, had lower taxes. In 
1786 the desirability of a reduction in number was 
considered in the Assembly. Those in its favor were 
advised that this measure would be unconstitutional 
unless approved by the people. Some ridiculed the 
need of two sessions to carry on the small amount 
of business, which could be easily handled in a 
single session, with a saving to the tax payer. 28 

The Council consisted of the ex officio governor 
and lieutenant governor and twelve elected assis- 
tants, representing the state at large. The governor, 
or in his absence the lieutenant governor or senior 
assistant presided, but voted only in case of a tie. 
The presiding officer and six assistants made a 

27 Wansey observed: "There are some good orators among them: 
Mr. Granger, member from Suffield; Mr. Stanley; Mr. Phelps; Gen. 
Hart, member from Saybrook, made as good speeches as any I have 
heard in our own House of Commons." Journal, p. 58. Kendall 
believed that men of superior qualifications were not lacking. Travels, 
I, 171. But Tudor thought otherwise of Connecticut: "There was a 
sort of habitual, pervading police, made up of Calvinistic inquisition 
and village scrutiny, that required a very deleterious subserviency 
from all candidates for public life. A very conceited intolerance held 
opinion in subjection." Letters, p. 47. 

28 Gale, Brief Remarks (1782), pp. 28, 34-36; Stiles, Diary, III, 
124; Constitution of Conn. (1901), State Series, p. 105; Republican Watch 
Tower article in Mercury, Jan. 29, 1801. 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 193 

quorum. Sessions were secret. No minutes were 
kept. A seat in the Council was one of honor and 
power. An assistant was an ex officio justice of 
the peace and could serve in the place of a judge 
of the superior court. With two of his fellows he 
could reprieve a criminal until the next session; 
on urgent need he could call out the militia; and 
could preside at freemen's meetings. As all bills 
had to pass both Houses, seven members of the 
Council could veto a measure. Then, because of 
their social and economic position, long terms and 
experience, the assistants were a powerful group. 
In practice, this small body governed the state, for 
without its concurrence nothing could be done, 
no law passed, or official appointed. 29 

The assistants were nominated and elected by 
the people. 30 Up to about 1697 this function had 
fallen to the General Assembly, but a revolt made 
the introduction of democratic forms necessary. 
The scheme of electing the Council was shrewdly 
arranged to satisfy the democratic demands, yet 
to leave it under control of the aristocratic govern- 
ing class. In the September town meeting, every 
freeman wrote the names of twenty men, whom 
he nominated for assistant. These papers were 

29 Swift, System of the Laws, I, 63, 84, 88; Kendall, Travels, I, 22-23; 
Dwight, Travels, I, 236-238. The Assembly was said to be as obse- 
quious to the Council as the members of Parliament whom Queen 
Elizabeth cuffed. Mercury, Mar. 17, 1803; Aug. 27, 1816. 

30 Statutes (1750), p. 46; ibid. (1796), p. 152; ibid. (1808), p. 244; 
Dwight, Travels, I, 223-228; William Beers, Address (1791); Baldwin 
in Amer. Hist. Assoc, Report (1890), pp. 87, 92; Mead, Corporate 
Colony, p. 12. 



194 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

then collected by the constable, justice, or assist- 
ant in charge, and sent by the town clerk to 
the General Assembly, whose committee counted 
them and listed the highest twenty as nominees. 
About 1801 the revised election law called for oral 
nominations and an open standing vote by the 
freemen. This permitted the control of the meet- 
ing by the upper class, for only a freeman of bold 
independence could nominate his honest choice. 
The list of twenty nominees was then submitted 
to the freemen in April, but so arranged that the 
present assistants or ex-assistants stood first on the 
list regardless of the number of votes which they 
had polled the previous fall. The freemen were 
given twelve slips of paper. The list was read off, 
and the vote taken. In order to vote for one of the 
last eight, the freeman would have to preserve one 
of his twelve papers. To do this was virtually to 
proclaim oneself in open revolt. The only recourse 
by way of protest was the casting of a blank ballot. 
This meant a dearly purchased secrecy, for the 
twelve slips would be used up before the moderator 
commenced to read the names of the new candi- 
dates. However, the casting of blank votes became 
general and could not be prevented by an act 
passed for that purpose. To be sure, a freeman 
of strong character, economically and socially inde- 
pendent, could vote as he pleased. Few, however, 
could vote for an ' 'atheistical" Republican with the 
minister present, under the eyes of local officers, 
and men of wealth, whose good will might be vitally 
necessary. The vote became mechanical, most 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 195 

freemen voting for the first twelve nominees or re- 
tiring through lack of interest in recognition of the 
futility of their opposition. Dwight rejoiced that 
the assistants were balloted on late in the day, when 
party zeal had been spent in the contest over the 
representatives and the poll was left in control 
of the townsmen of wisdom and wealth, "the 
ignorant, idle, and light minded citizens" having 
retired. The votes from the various towns were 
again forwarded to the General Assembly, counted 
on Election Day by the joint committee, and the 
names of the assistants were formally proclaimed. 

This elaborate plan guaranteed the stability of 
the government. Their long tenure which became 
so characteristic is clearly shown in a final appendix 
[infra, p. 420]. Generally a councilor held office 
until he resigned, was promoted to the governorship, 
or sent to Congress. From 1783 to 1801 it was 
said that there was only one assistant who failed 
at the polls for re-election. 31 

The Council represented the aristocracy of the 
state, the leaders in the ruling caste. Its members 
were men of family, of wealth, of talents, of educa- 
tion, and of wide political experience. Dema- 
gogues might break into the Lower House, but the 
Council was secured against their intrusion. 32 An 
obvious evil was the control which the large towns 
possessed, thus prejudicing the Council's repre- 
sentative character. 33 The high average of ability 

31 Theodore Dwight, Oration (1801). 

32 Dwight, Travels, I, 226; Gale, Brief Remarks (1782), pp. 31, 34-36. 

33 From 1639 to 1818 there were only 185 councilors, giving an 



196 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

in the Council was an advantage to the state as 
well as a check upon the popular House. The 
conservative element gloried in the Council as the 
bulwark of the church, the state, and of law and 
order. To the method of election all was due. 
Believing this, the Standing Order took pains to 
provide for the election of Congressmen in the same 
way, a fact which affords better evidence than their 
eulogies of the regard in which they held the nomi- 
nation system. 

This method of election was later attacked by 
the Republicans as an unfair means of thwarting 
the popular will. They argued that the candi- 
dates, who received the highest vote on the nomi- 
nation, should head the list. This would give new 
men the very advantage which the system had 
always given to candidates for re-election. Judge 
Swift saw no logic in such reasoning nor any un- 
fairness in letting this mechanical advantage oper- 
ate in favor of the permanency in ofhce of tried 
men. It was this very advantage, however, which 
made the Council the last stronghold of Federalism 
and Congregationalism. 34 Men with the highest 
vote at the nomination might fall in one of the 
eight last places on the list and stand no chance of 
being elected. Several years might elapse before 
a man reached a place at the head of the list and 

average service of twelve years. Only forty-five towns had been rep- 
resented, of which ten accounted for 128 assistants; that is: Hartford, 
27; Windsor, 17; Fairfield, 15; New Haven, 14; New London, 11; Nor- 
wich, 8; Wethersfield, 8; Litchfield, 8; etc. Kingsbury in New Haven 
Hist. Soc, Papers, III, 65-66. 

34 Baldwin, Amer. Hist. Assoc, Report (1890), p. 93. 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 197 

the goal of election. This period of expectancy- 
las ted from four to ten years, a measure of the 
Council's distance behind public opinion. Abra- 
ham Bishop pointed out in a striking arraignment 
of this Federalist safety device, that, although in 
1790 Jonathan Ingersoll led the poll, William 
Williams, the senior assistant, falling to twentieth 
place on the nomination, was placed at the head 
of the ticket and elected, while Ingersoll waited 
another year. 35 Williams, a signer of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, had opposed the ratification 
of the constitution; but he was a Congregationalist, 
while Ingersoll was merely an Episcopalian. Such 
a citation convinced the Standing Order of the effi- 
ciency, not the injustice, of the system. 

A later writer, lamenting the good old days, 
naively described the election of assistants: 

In illustration of the scrupulous regard which was had 
to actual merit in the popular election of senators, we have 
often heard Mr. Sherman say, that of the whole number 
nominated, there was one man who at each election for 
several years was almost but not quite elected; and this 
exactly represented his actual merit in comparison with 
his rival candidates. 36 

Even in the counting of votes favoritism was 
shown. If a freeman threw in a blank vote against 
one of the first twelve, he merely lost the vote, 
without prejudicing the candidate, who might 
possibly receive more blank than affirmative votes, 
which alone counted. 37 Republicans asked why 

35 Bishop, Oration (1801), pp. 16, 76; Mercury, Mar. 24, 1803. 

36 Sketch of Sherman (1846), p. 8. 

37 J. C. Welling, "Connecticut Federalism" in Addresses, Lectures and 
Other Papers, p. 306. 



198 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

a double election should be necessary for assistants 
and not for the governor, if it was not "an ingenious 
and complicated piece of mechanism designed by 
the multiplicity of its wheels and springs, of its 
clogs and checks, to divert from the instrument of 
government, a direct application of the popular 
power." 38 

Kendall in his discussion of the Council has 
afforded us the valuable criticism of an impartial 
foreigner : 

Credit is undoubtedly due to this scheme or system for 
its ingenuity, and its practical effects in Connecticut may 
be completely beneficial; but I venture to express an opinion, 
that it is undistinguished by any feature of that wisdom 
which is contended for, and that it is altogether unfit for 
imitation. In Connecticut, its effect is to keep in power 
the party which has from the first possessed it. That 
party, from the accuracy of the principles upon which it 
acts, or the virtues of those who espouse it, may be the 
proper depository of power; but, were it not so, the effect 
would be the same. 39 

In more populous states he felt that it would leave 
all to intrigue, calumny and violence, and in Eng- 
land would enable an administration to maintain 
itself forever in defiance of crown and electors. 

The Council was assailed for its secrecy. Its 
doors were only open to receive petitions. Divi- 
sions of leaders, minutes, arguments, and votes 
were never disclosed to the public. The Council 
stood as a body; its proceedings were veiled in a 
cabinet-like secrecy. Kendall wrote: 

38 Richards, Politics of Connecticut. 

39 Kendall, Travels, I, 43-44. 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 199 

The Council is impenetrable; it is one; it has no weak 
part, by which it may be entered and subdued. All its 
acts are the acts of the party; the individual never appears 
. . . . Nothing is shown us but unanimity, and whence 
that unanimity arises we have no means of discovery. 40 

Assistants were thereby freed from individual criti- 
cism and responsibility, under which they might 
have labored hard on election day. 

The Council was taxed with an influence which 
prevented the independence or impartiality of 
the judiciary. Its appointing power enabled the 
Council to control every judge and justice of the 
peace, for without its concurrence the Assembly 
was powerless. As the major part of the assistants 
were lawyers of extensive practice, they sometimes 
acted as advocates before judges whose tenure 
depended upon them. This only made them more 
successful practitioners and increased their clientele. 
Up to 1807 the Council acted as the supreme 
court of errors, reviewing cases in which as indi- 
viduals they might have been professionally in- 
terested. This obvious unfairness was finally reme- 
died by the creation of a special court of errors. 41 
Up to 1804 assistants were not forbidden to plead 
before the Legislature in its highest appeal capacity, 
nor before their fellow- members of the court of 
errors. The necessity of this self-denying ordi- 
nance was apparent when David Daggett and 
Nathaniel Smith resigned from the Council. As 
two of the foremost attorneys they were reputed 

40 Travels, I, 171-173; cf. Greene, Religious Liberty, p. 402; Mercury, 
June 18, 1816. 
"Infra, p. 202. 



200 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

to have a lucrative practice which they would not 
give up for the honors of the Council-board. 42 

Some of the assistants held pluralities in the 
judicial administration. For instance, David Dag- 
gett, while in the Council, also served as state's 
attorney for New Haven. Jonathan Brace was a 
member of the Council from 1802 to 18 18, a judge 
of the county court (1 809-1821), judge of the pro- 
bate court ( 1 809-1 824), state's attorney for Hart- 
ford ( 1 807-1 809), mayor of Hartford, judge of 
the city court (1799-18 15), and an ex officio justice 
of the peace. Elizur Goodrich, while an assistant, 
was also mayor of New Haven and judge of the 
county court (1805-1818). 43 Such cases gave force 
to Republican attacks on the Council. Assistants 
were virtually procuring for themselves remuner- 
ative judgeships. Small wonder that even Federal- 
ists admitted that the judiciary was not inde- 
pendent. 

Lack of patriotism was another count against 
the Council. The Council took a lead in the oppo- 
sition to the Embargo and to the War of 181 2. 
Governor Griswold's refusal to accede to General 
Dearborn's call for the militia was made on the 
advice of the Council. He was really only the 
mouth-piece of their policy. Chauncey Goodrich 
and Samuel Sherwood were members of the Com- 



42 See Mercury, June 14, 21, July 5, 1804. 

43 For biographical data, see: Dexter, Biographical Sketches, IV, 
101-103, 114-117, 260-264; Thomas Day, Appendix to 13th. RepL, pp. 
6, 12; Loomis and Calhoun, Judicial History, pp. 199, 266; Kilbourne, 
Sketches, pp. 121-125. 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 201 

mittee of Safety of 1814. Ever}; representative 
of the state at the Hartford Convention, including 
its secretary, were members or ex-members of the 
Council. Such was the record of the recognized 
leaders in the desperate time when America faced 
foreign invasion. 44 The worst feature was that 
this small group were in a position to determine 
the state's policies. 

Abraham Bishop's assault on the Council fo- 
cussed attention on the "septem viri," as he de- 
scribed David Daggett, Nathaniel Smith, Jona- 
than Brace, J. Allen, William Edmond, Elizur and 
Chauncey Goodrich. The reason for his exclu- 
sion of Aaron Austin, who sat in the Council from 
1794 to 1 8 18, and his inclusion of Allen are not ap- 
parent. Republican writers, following Bishop, en- 
larged upon the evils of an oligarchy, greatly ex- 
aggerating the dangers which the state faced. 
As seven men could control the Council, such an 
inner group would be able to govern the state or 
at least neutralize the power of the Lower House. 
Republican agitators liked to emphasize their 
association with banking, insurance and turn- 
pike interests, their activity in the Congregational 
missionary and Bible societies,, their position on 
the board of governors of Yale, and consequent 
opposition to an Episcopalian college. Their selec- 
tion of intimates for state appointive officers and 
for senators and presidential electors was not over- 
looked. They were charged with being under 

"Mercury, Nov. 8, 1814; Aug. 27, 1816; Courant, Nov. 8, 1814; 
Jan. 31, 1815. 



202 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

clerical domination, being either the sons of 
Congregational ministers or closely allied to them 
by blood or marriage. They were compared to the 
French Directory as the main-spring of the state on 
whom all men depended. 

The judiciary existed only in the statutes enacted 
from time to time by the General Assembly. While 
the powers and duties of the various courts were 
fairly well defined, the whole system was extremely 
complicated. To Judge Swift's System of the Laws 
both bench and bar were deeply indebted for a 
succinct statement, describing the various courts, 
their jurisdiction and personnel. 

The supreme judicial power lay in the hands of 
the General Assembly. Until 1818 it remained 
the highest court of appeal, not unlike Parliament, 
retaining in addition equity jurisdiction in cases 
of over $5,000 and in special divorce cases. The 
other courts were established by the General 
Assembly, only to relieve itself of pressure, while 
business increased as the commonwealth grew 
more populous and life became more complex. 46 
This explains the dependence on the Legislature of 
the supreme court of errors, the superior court, 
the county or common pleas courts, the probate 
courts, the justices of the peace, and the courts 
of incorporated cities. 

The supreme court of errors 46 was established 
in 1784, in order to relieve the General Assembly 

^Loomis and Calhoun, Judicial History, p. 125; Swift, System of 
the Laws, I, 60. 

"Loomis and Calhoun, Judicial History, p. 133; Statutes, pp. 204, 
205, 218. 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 203 

of the bulk of its judicial work. This court under 
the presidency of the governor was made up of 
the lieutenant governor and the assistants. A 
session was held every June alternately at Hartford 
and New Haven. Decisions were in writing and 
were filed away by the clerk, so that the court was 
bound by precedent. As the court of final appeal, 
all matters of law or equity could be brought to 
it for review from the supreme court. 

The supreme court was subjected to considerable 
criticism because of the method of its creation and 
its personnel. Assistants who acted in lower 
courts were virtually reviewing their own decisions. 
They were judging cases in which their political 
friends and even brother- judges were interested 
personally or professionally. Its members were 
elected to make laws, not to adjudicate, and if un- 
trained in the law they were not fitted to render 
decisions. At length, criticism forced in 1806 
the discontinuance of the supreme court of errors 
as then constituted. 47 The judges of the superior 
court were increased to nine, any five to be a 
quorum with the secretary of state as their clerk. 
In 1 819 the supreme court fell before the new order. 

The superior court 48 dated back to 171 1, its 
five justices being increased in 1806 to a chief justice 
and eight assistant justices. Until 1818 they were 
annually appointed by the General Assembly. 

47 Statutes, pp. 218-221. 

48 Ibid., pp. 205, 218-220; Swift, System of the Laws, I, 93 ff.; Loomie 
and Calhoun, Judicial History, pp. 132 ff., 180. In 1806 it was provided 
that a circuit judge who sat on the case should not act on an appeal 
unless a quorum demanded his presence. 



204 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Judge Swift would have had them appointed for life 
or during good behavior, that they might be more 
independent, especially in cases where an influential 
character, say a member of the Legislature, hap- 
pened to be opposed to a poor man without in- 
fluence or friends. The state was divided into 
three circuits, on which these judges were sent, 
appearing twice a year in every county. Cases 
might come on appeal to the superior court from 
the decision of its own circuit judge. 

As a regular court, it adjudged all crimes, the 
punishment of which related to life, limb or banish- 
ment. Blasphemy, atheism, and Unitarianism came 
within its jurisdiction, as did statutory divorces, 
perjury, burglary, horse-stealing, forgery and the 
like. This court, by virtue of one of its own deci- 
sions, had the power to issue writs of mandamus to 
inferior courts, restraining or compelling them to 
execute justice or force a town clerk to record a 
deed. It granted writs of habeas corpus. On 
complaint the court might disfranchise a freeman 
for walking scandalously, and on his reformation, 
restore his electoral privileges. The superior court 
considered cases in equity up to about $5,000. 
Its appellate jurisdiction included all criminal 
cases from the lower courts, and civil cases from 
the county and probate courts of more than twenty 
dollars value. 

The county or common pleas courts were 49 es- 

49 Statutes, pp. 197, 207; Swift, System of the Laws, I, 80, 101-104; 
D wight, Travels, I, 238; Loomis and Calhoun, Judicial History, pp. 
129-131. 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 205 

tablished about 1666, when county lines were first 
traced. These courts were composed of a chief 
justice and four assistants, with a clerk of their 
own choice. As the judges were annually depen- 
dent on the General Assembly for re-appointment, 
their disinterested impartiality was subject to sus- 
picion. Any three judges made a quorum, and 
if necessary any assistant or justice of the peace 
could be called in to act. Its original jurisdiction 
in criminal matters included all crimes save those 
punishable by life, limb, banishment or Newgate 
penalties; and in civil cases anything beyond the 
consideration of the justices of the peace. In civil 
matters it exercised an appellate jurisdiction from 
the justice in disputes regarding bonds of more than 
seven dollars; and in chancery, jurisdiction up to 
$335- Among its essentially administrative duties 
were the superintendence of the estates of incompe- 
tents, appointment of guardians, levying the judi- 
cial tax on counties, admission of attorneys to 
practice and penalizing them for faulty pleading, 
and laying out highways. 

The state was divided into about thirty probate 
districts, every one under a judge annually ap- 
pointed by the Legislature. 50 Their duties con- 
sisted in probating wills, appointing guardians, all 
of which prior to 1716 had fallen to the General 
Assembly or to the county courts. When an ap- 
peal was taken from the probate to the superior 

60 Statutes, pp. 209-213; Dwight, Travels, I, 240; Swift, System of 
the Laws, I, 104; Loomis and Calhoun, Judicial History, pp. 151-153. 



206 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

court, the latter only denned the law, leaving the 
probate judge to carry out its administration. 

The justices of the peace, 51 averaging about 
seven to a town, were annually appointed by the 
Legislature and hence, like the sheriff, represented 
the state in the locality. As such, they advised 
in the executive affairs of the community. The 
senior justice had charge of the local elections. 
With the selectmen and constables, they named 
the tavern keepers; bound men to keep the peace; 
and apprehended suspects. Their jurisdiction was 
confined within the town, but their warrants only 
by the state. Their jurisdiction was not unlike 
that of the English justice of the peace. In 
criminal matters the town justices could act 
in cases where the fine was not more than seven 
dollars, and could condemn to the stocks or whip- 
ping-post negroes or those unable to pay a fine. 
A single justice could not sentence a criminal to 
prison. In civil matters their jurisdiction was 
limited to $15, save in special actions. Cases of 
drunkenness, swearing, Sabbath-breaking, debts, 
unlicensed taverns, unlawful lottery tickets were 
brought to their attention. Appeals could be 
taken in all cases save those of swearing or 
Sabbath -breaking. 

The justices came to be regarded by the Republi- 
cans as the Council's minions in the locality, as 
efficient workers in the Federalist political system. 
They were invariably Federalist in politics or, if 
not, were politically silenced. This explains the 

51 Statutes, index; Public Laws, index; Swift, System of the Laws, I, 
60, 92, 107-109; Loomis and Calhoun, Judicial History, p. 155. 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 207 

Republican antagonism to the justices, even if, 
as the Hartford Courant noted, they only received 
"the squire and half a dozen six-pences a year." 52 
As justices were frequently representatives, sheriffs, 
mayors, or town officers, there was something in 
the charge that too much power was centered in 
their hands. 53 

The judiciary was described as smooth- working, 
just, calculated to avoid expense and delay, and 
administering a penal code far different from the 
atrocious one of England. The most orthodox 
Federalist admitted the judiciary to be the weak 
spot in the government. Dwight lamented the de- 
pendence of judges in intriguing for annual re- 
appointments. 54 In practice their terms were long, 
probably because the Legislature reviewed their de- 
cisions with satisfaction. Dwight, with a Biblical 
vision, would have judges responsible to God alone. 
Swift demanded an independent judiciary, es- 
pecially objecting to the legislative prerogative 
which allowed them on petition to review a case 
from the lower courts. Such appellate jurisdiction 
seemed to him a menace, for the Legislature con- 
sidered a case chiefly with an idea to its political 
expediency. In this reasoning, Colonel Kirby 
as a jurist and a Republican agreed. 55 

52 Mercury, Apr. 2, June 4, 1816; Courant, Aug. 19, 1817. 

53 Forbidden by an act of 1812. Public Laws, p. 84. 

54 Dwight, Travels, I, 243 ff.; Dwight, Decisions, pp. 269 ff. See 
Dwight, Connecticut, p. 442; Greene, Religious Liberty, p. 428. Thomas 
Seymour, Chief Justice of Hartford County for twenty years, became 
a Republican and was dismissed. Mercury, May 24, 1804. 

55 Swift, Vindication of Superior Court (1816); Conn. Reports, I. 
428; Baldwin in New Haven Hist. Soc, Papers, V, 208. 



208 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Alexander Hamilton was quoted by Republican 
writers, to indicate the dangers of judicial com- 
plaisance, if judges' commissions were temporary. 
The judiciary should be a separate branch of the 
government in order to exert a restraining influence 
upon the Legislature and executive, and to afford 
a free people security against a tyrannical exercise 
of power. This could not be true, when every 
judicial office existed only by virtue of a statute, 
subject to repeal at the pleasure of the Legislature. 
Judges and justices were not only appointed by 
the Legislature, but often were themselves represen- 
tatives. As such they were subject to accusations 
of bargaining to win judicial preferment. Being 
dependent, they were apt to be politically partial. 

Judge Samuel Church of the supreme court of 
errors and a framer of the constitution of 1818 
wrote : 

The Courts of law were most complained of as being 
partisan in the discharge of their duties. The Judges were 
annually appointed and an independent judiciary was 
loudly and earnestly demanded. Prosecutions by States 
Attorneys against Republican editors were frequent; Demo- 
cratic lawyers were discountenanced and frowned upon. 56 

The county courts and superior courts con- 
trolled the admission of lawyers to the bar and, 
as judges were Federalists to a man, their attitude 
toward Republican candidates can be imagined. 
Republicans rightly complained that judges could 
not spend the morning writing inflammatory politi- 

66 Church Mss.; cf. Barstow, New Hampshire, p. 424, for similar con- 
ditions in that state. 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 209 

cal strictures, and then coolly decide the legal dif- 
ferences between two opposing partisans, with 
one of whom the judge might have had a rankling 
newspaper controversy. Certainly, Republican 
editors tried for libel were given scant justice by 
judge or jury. 57 Impartial, not "Irish juries," were 
demanded by a writer in the Litchfield Witness 
who asked: 

Is there to be no sanctuary left against the rage of party? 
Is it not enough that our social circles and our very meeting 
houses are pervaded by its influence? 58 

Friend and foe, reactionary and reformer alike, 
saw the necessity for judicial reform. Republi- 
cans cried out, as the years went by, for a written 
constitution which would plainly define the juris- 
diction of the various courts, which would make 
the judiciary a co-equal branch of the government 
dependent on the organic, not statutory, law, and 
free it from all dependence on the Legislature or 
politics. Here they had one of their soundest, 
practical arguments for a written constitution. 

Long tenure in all offices might be said to have 
been the Connecticut rule. Governors, lieutenant 
governors, secretaries, treasurers, and councilors 
held office year in and year out. Congressmen 
served many terms; representatives, elected semi- 
annually, often sat for their towns from twenty 
to thirty sessions. Even the annually appointive 
officers, judges, sheriffs, school commissioners, gen- 

67 Infra, p. 331. 

58 Quoted in Mercury, Nov. 14, 1805. 



210 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

erally had a good-behavior tenure. Mayors, town 
clerks, selectmen, and constables were likewise 
rewarded by numerous re-elections. 59 

Strangers remarked this stability in a govern- 
ment so apparently Republican. Later writers 
have noted enthusiastically the long terms as evi- 
dence of a grateful people. 60 Republican reformers 
accounted for this permanence in office because 
of the splendid political organization, the election 
system, suffrage qualifications, and use of patron- 
age. Today one sees in this bureaucracy a flaw 
in the state's democracy, and wonders if there 
might not have been a ruling class, which governed 
while the people voted and boasted of their pure 
democracy. No less a Federalist than David 
Daggett, in describing the government before the 
Revolution, said: 

This state, and many others, were under a most perfect 
aristocracy — The name truly we disowned, yet quietly 
submitted to a government essentially autocratic. 61 

59 Space does not permit a consideration of the impressive number 
of town officials who were annually elected, but who often served un- 
usually long periods. One can not overlook the frequency with which 
certain names appear. It would not be difficult to compile a list of the 
influential governing families by towns. 

60 Cf. Baldwin in Amer. Hist. Assoc, Report (1890), p. 94. 

61 Daggett, Oration (1787), pp. 5-6. Cf. "But Connecticut was 
federalist to the backbone, Roger Sherman in New Haven, the Wolcotts 
in Litchfield, the Champions in Colchester, William Samuel Johnson 
in Fairfield, Ellsworth in Hartford, the Trumbulls and Huntingtons in 
Norwich — the state was under an oligarchy indeed; and so it continued 
until the alliance of toleration and the democrats overthrew it." Ora- 
tion by Arthur L. Shipman, in Gilman, Norwich, p. 113. 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 211 

Certainly there was no change in the ruling per- 
sonnel in church or state in 1776, nor until the 
political revolution of 1817-1818. 

Federalist writers lauded the long periods of 
official service as the basis of the state's stability 
and excellent administration. Dr. Gale in 1782 
argued in its favor, as experience made men expert 
in the duties of their office, attacking the clause 
in the Articles of Confederation which prevented 
a member from sitting in Congress more than three 
1 out of six years. 62 Judge Swift wrote: 

A sentiment has for a long time been impressed on the 

minds of the people, that it is best for the community to 

continue in office all persons who have once been honoured 

I by their suffrages in case they continue to merit their con- 

■ fidence This noble sentiment seems to be inter- 

woven in the character of the people, and has a powerful 
, tendency to render public offices secure and permanent. 68 

1 Noah Webster assured his readers that rotation 

1 in office did not protect a state from the cupidity 

I of public servants if the experiences of other states 

1 served as a guide. 64 

Men came to regard their civil offices in the light 

I of freeholds. Those who opposed their re-election 
were dangerous innovators, trying to subvert the 

I constitution, law and order. True, their rule was 
beneficent. The state was honestly governed, at 
least there was said to be relatively little legislative 

! corruption. Administration expenses were small, 

62 Brief Remarks, p. 30. 

53 System of the Laws, I, 83. 

64 Oration, July 4, 1802, pp. 20 ff. 



212 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

salaries being at a minimum. Republicans hardly 
denied these advantages, yet in the name of democ- 
racy demanded reforms which would result in more 
frequent changes in office. 

Closely associated with the government, and in 
part explaining the long tenure of offices, was the 
system of nomination and election. To the foreign 
observer, this system appeared to represent the 
very acme of democracy. Kendall noticed that 
town officers were elected by the freemen; minis- 
ters by their congregations; schoolmasters by the 
school committees; inferior militia officers by the 
privates; and state officers, town representatives, 
assistants, and Congressmen by the freemen in 
town meeting. He concluded enthusiastically: 
"Every public trust and office in Connecticut is 
elective." 65 

Kendall had neither time nor the desire to look 
behind the forms of democracy, or he might have 
discovered a ruling aristocracy. Abraham Bishop 
overshot the mark, but still came close to the truth, 
when he declared: "We have lived in a State which, 
exhibiting to the world a democratic exterior, has 
actually practiced within itself all the arts of an 
organized aristocracy, under the management of 
the old firm of Moses and Aaron." 66 

One learns of the existence of this aristocratic 
feature by a discerning reading of newspapers, ser- 
mons, and political pamphlets ; certainly not by read- 
ing the Federalist accounts of the government's sta- 

65 Kendall, Travels, I, 27. 

66 Bishop, Oration (1804), p. 20. 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 213 

bility, the permanence of officers, and the freeman's 
delicate feelings regarding the sacredness of nomi- 
nation and election, and his determination to reward 
only men of inherent, proven worth. The Puritan 
might hate king and bishop, but in Connecticut he 
allowed a rule of the educated, well-born, and 
respectably wealthy. Their rule was benevolent 
and probably half unconscious, even to themselves. 
Yet it was not the less real, as was clearly demon- 
strated, when they were forced to defend their 
privileges in the name of the Federalist party against 
an inflood of democracy which came with the dif- 
fusion of political education. Reformers were to 
learn that this class was intrenched behind an im- 
pregnable barrier of statutes, patronage, and elec- 
tion devices, which laughed to scorn D wight's 

I and Swift's platitudes regarding a government 

, popularly controlled. 

On the third Monday of September the freemen 

| met in town meeting to select their representa- 

\ tives and to nominate twenty assistants and four- 
teen (later sixteen) Congressmen. 67 On the Monday 
after the first Tuesday in April the freemen voted 
for the state officers: representatives, twelve as- 
sistants from the list of twenty, and seven Con- 
gressmen from their nomination list. The free- 
men's meeting was presided over by an assistant, 
a justice, or constable. Rarely would a town be 
without a justice, so generally did this nominee of 
the Legislature preside rather than the elective con- 
stable. Usually the meeting was opened with 

67 For election laws Statutes, pp. 244-251; Public Laws, pp. 48, 78. 



214 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

prayer by a Congregational minister. This was 
the invariable rule before 1800; but when certain 
towns became "Jacobean strongholds," this bit of 
formality was not deemed essential. In other towns 
to proceed without prayer would almost invalidate 
the proceedings. 68 Some of the praying was, no 
doubt, as the Republicans claimed, political. It 
might be vague or as plain as that of the Hartford 
cleric: "If you choose such men to rule over you, 
the Lord have mercy on you." Robbins, who so 
honestly feared Republicanism, must have found 
it difficult to pray neutrally, for, after noting in his 
diary that he had offered prayers at the election, 
he concluded : "I think this last effort of Democracy, 
through the mercy of our fathers' God, will meet 
with a great defeat." 69 While Republicans did not 
deny the clergyman the right to vote, they sug- 
gested that it would be tactful in him to absent 
himself, for his vote would rarely turn the result 
and he would thereby free himself of the allegation 
that he was influencing the vote. 

Voting for representatives and state officers was 
by secret ballot, though the secrecy was impaired 
by the moderator's right to inspect folded ballots 
to prevent stuffing. 70 Nominations of assistants 
and Congressmen were made in open meeting by 

68 Sharpe, Oxford, p. 168; Robbins, Diary, I, 354; Courant, Sept. 29, 
1808; Mercury, Sept. 25, Oct. 2, 1801. 

69 Diary, I, 472. 

70 While election by ballot was provided for in 1639, it was not used 
in practice. A law of 1670 allowed choice by acclamation, and not until 
1814 was it definitely provided that election must be by ballot. Public 
Laws, p. 162; Baldwin in Amer. Hist. Assoc, Report (1890), p. 89. 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 215 

any freeman. Republican charges of control by 
minister, deacon and justices, described it as a 
"deacon's seat" nomination. At any rate to openly 
name an undesirable candidate required a boldness 
only possible in men politically and financially inde- 
pendent. According to Bishop, numbers of free- 
men ceased to attend the elections, feeling that the 
method of nomination defeated the purpose of 
election. The vote for assistants and Congressmen 
could be made secret only at the expense of casting 
as a blank ballot one of his twelve votes. Another 
cause of complaint was that these important offices 
were balloted for late in the afternoon when many 
of the freemen, tired of the long day, had gone 
home. 71 Hence the Republican poll for representa- 
tives was much larger than the vote for councilors. 
Plaintively did Republican leaders request their 
adherents to remain to the last. Election results 
were certified by the clerk and sent to the Legis- 
lature, thus, as Republicans complained, keeping 
the people ignorant of the result for weeks. 

The elections were conducted with decorum. 72 
They were not disgraced with riots, bribery, and 
open corruption, as were the English elections. 
Drinking, however, was common, especially as in 
some places it was customary to treat the select- 
men. Corruption in the way of illegal voters, 
crooked voting, proxy voting, printed tickets, 
bribery, undue influence, receiving of bribes, and 

71 Bishop, Address (1800), p. 67; Mercury, June 11, 1801; Apr. 1, 1802. 

72 Swift, System of the Laws, I, 67, 153; Dwight, Travels, I, 225, 231; 
Mercury, Oct. 28, 1802. Corrupt-practices act, Statutes, pp. 244-246. 



216 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

the dispensing of spirituous liquors to voters were 
all guarded against by corrupt-practices clauses, 
which provided penalties as high as a fine of thirty- 
four dollars. The majority with their own justices 
to enforce the law could easily prevent Republi- 
can corruption. The danger lay in the interpre- 
tation; undue influence might mean one thing for 
a deacon and quite another for a Republican 
demagogue. The chief barriers to actual corrup- 
tion lay in the frequency of elections, small salaries, 
and the law-abiding nature of the people. 

Republican local successes so worried the major 
party by 1801 that extra precautions were taken 
to prevent the political defection of the towns. A 
new election law, the "Stand-up Law," was framed 
by the Council and with some difficulty forced 
through the Assembly. 73 This law provided that 
the freemen's meeting should be presided over by 
an assistant, a justice or the senior constable, or 
by a person selected by a majority of the justices 
and constables present. In this way there was 
not the slightest danger of a Republican moderator. 
A dangerous control over the meeting was given 
this chairman, backed by justices ready to enforce 
his decisions by fines, or binding over a "tumultuous 
freeman." The new method of nomination was 
considered especially infamous. Any freeman 
could theoretically nominate a man, but voters 
must stand or raise their hands to be counted. 
To enable a freeman to keep track of his votes, he 
was given twenty slips of paper for counters, 

73 Statutes, pp. 251-253. 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 217 

one of which he was supposed to drop at every 
vote. Tellers appointed by the moderator counted 
the votes aloud and reported to the moderator, 
who audibly repeated the number while recording 
it on the minutes. 

No Federalist measure created more of an up- 
roar. As leading Republicans like Gideon Granger, 
Elisha Hyde and Joseph Wilcox pointed out in 
debate, complete supervision of elections was in 
the hands of deeply interested justices. Every- 
thing depended upon tellers who were independent 
of the freemen and strongly Federalist. Aside from 
intentional errors, it was easy to err in the frequent 
counting of a crowded room or gathering on the 
green. 74 Whether a freeman voted more than 
twenty times could not be readily known, nor was 
it as easy as under the old way to detect illegal 
voters. All secrecy was destroyed; squire, min- 
ister and candidate knew how every individual 
voted. Federalists contended that the law saved 
time in that election hours were cut in half; then, 
too, that a man not independent enough to vote 
openly, without fear or favor, was unworthy the 
suffrage. They refused to believe that banker, 
manufacturer or general merchant could control 
a farmer's or laborer's vote, or that social or re- 
ligious fears would prevent a free vote. Con- 

74 Errors were notoriously frequent, votes of whole towns being 
thrown out on a technicality. Moderators even refused to put the 
Republican list, and through their power, it was charged, Republican 
towns went Federalist. Mercury, Sept. 27, Oct. 25, Nov. 1, 1804; 
Oct. 10, 1805; May 25, 1809; Courant, June 4, 1806; May 20, 1807. 
These are but typical examples. 



218 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

necticut, it was said, had no overgrown estates 
or landlords ambitious to lead. In part this was 
true, but the economic development of the state 
resulted in a fairly wealthy class which, allied 
with the social and religious order, could exert 
a pressure which many freemen could not over- 
look. Republican newspapers ridiculed the so- 
called freedom of election as guaranteed by an 
act of the aristocratic Council. 

Judge Baldwin justly characterized the act as 
an undermining of the venerable system of election, 
"in vain hope to uphold the declining fortunes of 
the Federalist party." 75 It was a piece of sharp 
practice impossible to defend, and doomed to defeat 
its own end by arousing the minority bitterly to 
fight on to victory. It lent color to all charges of 
unfairness in elections. It assured the country 
that the majority had the will and the power to 
perpetuate themselves. The most ardent Feder- 
alist supporter of church and state could justify 
the measure only by the pernicious theory that a 
good end justifies a bad means. 

Colonel Ephraim Kirby proposed an election bill 
in the fall session of 1802 which was defeated by 
120 to 59 votes. Yet only a written ballot was 
asked, which would mean deliberation, secrecy, 
and more celerity. 76 Another attempt to purify 
the election system was made by the Republicans 
in the spring of 1808. They were quoted on the 

75 Bishop, Oration (1804), pp. 13-15. 

78 National I ntelligemer and Pittsfield Sun, articles quoted in Mercury 
Nov. 11, 22, Dec. 23, 1802. 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 219 

necessity of secrecy in elections, and gave the Feder- 
alist arguments against vicious innovation with 
the query why the election law of the fathers had 
been changed. 77 Again in the spring of 1 8 1 7 another 
attempt at repeal was made, only to be followed 
by success in the next session. 78 

Suffrage qualifications were defined by statutes and 
hence subject to legislative change at any session. 79 
Any man of twenty-one years could be made a voter 
if he was possessed of "a free-hold estate to the value 
of seven dollars per annum, or one hundred and 
thirty-four dollars personal estate in the general 
list . . or .... of estates by law 

excused from putting into the list; and [was] of 
a quiet and peaceable behavior and civil conver- 
sation." The property qualifications were simply 
the old forty-shilling freehold and forty-pound 
personal clauses translated into the new monetary 
system. No attempt was made, as in Rhode 
Island, to adapt the property qualification to the 
fluctuating value of money. Hence the qualifi- 
cations became more liberal and the number of 
potential voters larger, as real and personal proper- 
ty increased in value. The Federalist majority 
by supplementary acts further restricted the num- 
ber of freemen and made admission more difficult. 
In 181 it was enacted that the real estate must 
be free of mortgage, and the one hundred and 

77 Mercury, June 9, 1808. 

78 Public Laws, p. 297; Courant, Nov. 4, 1817. 

79 Statutes, pp. 185, 357, 650; Swift, System of the Laws, I, 69; Dwight, 
Travels, I, 223; Bronson in New Haven Hist. Soc., Papers, I, 50; Mc- 
Kinley, Suffrage, p. 414. 



220 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

thirty-four dollars on the list must be exclusive of 
the sixty-dollar poll or assessments. A year later 
it was provided that a freeman must be a free, 
white male. Another law punished with a heavy 
fine illegal voting or dishonesty in qualifying for 
a freeman. 80 

Suffrage was a gift, not a right. Every man had 
to be approved before he was made a voter, other- 
wise he was legally only an inhabitant. Before 
any meeting of freemen the selectmen sat to con- 
sider the petitions of potential freemen. On certifi- 
cation by a majority of the selectmen, the candi- 
date was enrolled by the town clerk in open free- 
men's meeting, and took the oath from an assistant 
or justice. 81 As the selectmen were elected by the 
voters of the town, they were apt to be under 
Republican influence, if that party had a majority 
in the town. Hence the Federalists sought to take 
this power out of the hands of elective officers. 

In 1 80 1 the law was so revised that a man must 
have the written approval of a majority of the civil 
authorities and selectmen. 82 This virtually placed 
the making of freemen in the hands of the Federalist 
justices. As a precaution, it was provided, that 
the deed of the freehold must be executed and 
registered four months before the new voter could 
be approved. A freeman known to be "walking 
scandalously" or guilty of a scandalous offense 

80 Public Laws, pp. 113, 162, 209. In 1810 there were 6,453 blacks 
and in 1820, 7,844. 

81 Statutes, p. 357; D wight, Travels, I, 223; Conn. State Records, I, 
226. 

82 Statutes, p. 358; Public Laws, p. 256. 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 221 

could be disfranchised by the superior court. 
Here again a Federalist justice proved a valuable 
Paul Pry. Swift believed that a man would not be 
stricken from the list, though reduced in property. 
Republicans, however, disagreed, citing cases where 
men had been disfranchised on the depreciation 
of their wealth. 83 There was nothing to prevent 
the suffrage from falling a prey to party intrigue. 
Indeed the whole arrangement benefited the party 
in power; and the law could be so administered as 
to practically disfranchise prospective freemen of 
Republican tendencies. In the suffrage abuses, 
Republicans found another argument for a written 
constitution. 

Extension of the suffrage became a chief plank in 
Connecticut Republicanism and made an appeal- 
ing campaign cry. That men were vitally de- 
sirous of the vote is not half as certain as the deter- 
mination of Republican leaders to impress upon 
them that with the suffrage they could right their 
wrongs. Men were sure to be interested in the 
party which so cherished their welfare. Feder- 
alists thrown on the defensive, were driven to un- 
democratic arguments against an open suffrage. 
The politicians struck a popular idea; they had 
read the people's mind. 

The right of suffrage as the best privilege of man 
became the usual toast at Republican celebra- 



83 System of the Laws, I, 69. For case of a veteran of the French 
and Indian and Revolutionary wars, admitted as a freeman in 1769, 
but disfranchised under the new law, see Mercury, Apr. 3, 1806. 



222 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION; 1775-1818 

tions. 84 On such occasions the old theme of no 
taxation without representation again commanded 
attention. All men were taxed; but all men did 
not vote. Rhetorical questions were propounded 
as to the success of a revolution which left many 
inhabitants not citizens, but "white slaves." On 
all occasions the "poor porpoises," as Noah Web- 
ster was accused of calling the non-freemen citi- 
zens, 85 were told that they were liable to military 
service. They had little to defend, but in case of 
war would be drafted to die for their masters. 
Their privilege was to fight, to pay taxes, but 
never to select their rulers. There were even 
Revolutionary veterans without the vote. Of the 
48,000 men in the state in 181 5, about twenty 
thousand, it was argued, were in the militia, while 
the rest were in the excepted classes. Yet it was 
these latter classes which made up the bulk of the 
freemen and owned five-sixths of the property. 86 
The laboring man, and the son of the small farmer 
and mechanic were not voters, yet were forced to 

84 See, for instance, accounts of Fourth of July celebrations in Mer- 
cury, July 21, 1803; July 14, 19, 1804. 

86 Noah Webster, attacking the suffrage bill in the Assembly (1802), 
told the following story: " While Commodore Truxton and his crew 
lay at Philadelphia, the crew were all invited up to Freemen's Meeting, 
their votes were handed them, and they voted according to the wishes 
of a party. Not long afterward, when they were returning up the 
Delaware from a cruise, they saw a school of Porpoises making toward 
Philadelphia. One of them asked the other, where are those Porpoises 
going; why, damn it, replied the other, to a freeman's meeting to 

vote for ." Mercury, Dec. 2, 1802. Republicans immediately 

accepted the term, which, it was predicted, would be as honorable as 
sansculottes. Mercury, Feb. 3. 1803. 

86 Mercury, Jan. 24, 1815. 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 223 

serve in the militia. Republicans held no brief for 
universal suffrage, but for all men who served in 
the militia or paid taxes. A property qualification 87 
they decried, as unmoral and dangerous, for 
through it the brave yeomanry of the state were 
deprived of their only weapon against wealth's 
oppression. Col. Kirby argued with moderation in 
the Assembly of 1802, in favor of a bill extending 
the suffrage to all men of certified peaceful and 
moral character. There could be no danger, for 
there was no intention to include dissolute persons 
or the few aliens within the state. He felt that 
the majority of freeholders would not object to 
this simple justice to their neighbors, and that the 
justices and selectmen would exercise sufficient 
care. Another Republican member suggested that 
a property qualification was not deemed necessary 
for witnesses in the law courts, where the danger 
of bribery was far greater. Their arguments were 
vain, as they were to be taught by another defeat 
in 1804. 88 Under the system in force even a man 
of means might be disfranchised, if all his wealth 
was invested in trade or business, rather than in 
land, houses, or listed personal property. This 
injustice loomed larger as more men turned from 
agriculture to business. 89 It was urged that the 
property basis did not prevent corruption, for there 
are "our manufactured voters." Wealthy men 

87 Mercury, Aug. 25, 1808. 

88 Ibid., Dec. 2, 1802; May 31, June 7, 1804. 

89 An industrious artisan might be better off than a freeman farmer. 
It was said men with from $1,000 to $4,000 were disfranchised. Mer- 
cury, Jan. 9, 1816. 



224 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

could present their sons with seven dollars a year 
in land, thus gaining freemen's rights for them. 
Again, favoritism was charged, in that a Yale 
diploma gave the professional man a vote. 90 Re- 
publicans made capital of every argument, some 
of them strikingly modern arguments in their 
socialistic leanings. 91 

Federalist leaders were aroused to the defense 
of the property qualification, well aware that its 
removal would mean a Republican victory. Swift 
in 1795 was inclined to question if character would 
not be a better safeguard against corruption than 
the possession of property, yet he saw no hardship 
because of the small amount of property required. 9 * 
By 1 801 these Federalist doubts had disappared. 
Noah Webster in 1802 argued against moral 
qualifications as the sole standard, recalling the 
fact that Rome fell only when she extended her 
suffrage. 93 He indignantly denied that sovereignty 
was derived from the people, that officers were 
servants of the people, or that legislators were re- 
sponsible to their constituents. These were fal- 
lacies intended to degrade the magistracy, bring 
law and government into contempt, and stimulate 

90 Mercury, Apr. 14, 1803; July 24, 1806. 

91 "The great alarm about this [universal suffrage] is, lest the poor 
should gain the advantage of the rich; but all the laws in the world 
were never able to give the poor one-tenth of their rights." Mercury- 
Jan. 16, 1806. "Aristocracies dare not rely for support on the plough 
and the hammer. Federalists have a radical contempt for stone cutters 
and saddlers." Mercury, Jan. 9, 1806. 

92 System of the Laws, I, 69. 

93 Mercury (debates), Dec. 2, 1802; Oration, Fourth of July, 1802, 
especially pp. 17-20. 



THE WORKING GOVERNMENT 225 

factious discontent. He grieved that some dis- 
tinction was not possible, in English as in Latin, 
between populus and plebs. He continued: 

Equally absurd is the doctrine that the universal enjoy- 
ment of the right of suffrage, is the best security for free 
elections and a pure administration. The reverse is proved 
by all experience to be the fact; that a liberal extension of 
the right of suffrage accelerates the growth of corruption, 
by multiplying the number of corruptible electors, and 
reducing the price of venal suffrages. 

He agreed that all men should have equal pro- 
tection before the law, whether they possessed 
a single cow or a thousand acres, but not equal 
power to make that law. Every man is not 
| worthy of a magistracy or college professorship, 
I nor is every man capable of sharing in govern- 
I ment through the exercise of the suffrage. It 
would be an injustice and a danger to allow the 
• class who hold but a twentieth of the wealth to rule. 
This was his viewpoint: 

The very principle of admitting everybody to the right 
of suffrage, prostrates the wealth of individuals to the 
rapaciousness of a merciless gang, who have nothing to lose 
and will delight in plundering their neighbors. 94 

David Daggett in a pamphlet, Count the Cost, 
decried the clamor for the vote, arguing that govern- 
mental stability meant nothing to the penniless 
man who exhausted his earnings in the grog shop, 
"to the mere bird of passage," or the merchant 
whose wealth was in movable goods. But to the 
landed man stability was everything. Unlike 

94 Mercury, Apr. 28, 1803. 



226 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Webster, he did not demand a plural vote as the 
alternative if every man was given one vote. 

George W. Stanley contended that property 
demanded more protection than life or liberty, 
which were safe under ordinary circumstances. 95 
As nine-tenths of the work of Legislature and courts 
consisted of protecting property, the making of 
laws should be left to property owners. Universal 
suffrage would give an electorate controlled by 
demagogues. It would dethrone the middle class 
which, according to the Connecticut Courant, could 
alone check the ambition of the upper class and 
the licentiousness of the populace. Such were 
the Federalist views on the suffrage question. 

96 Oration, Aug. 8, 1805, pp. 12 ff. 



CHAPTER VI 

Rise of the Democratic-Republican Party 

/CONNECTICUT'S opposition party was of late 
^-^ birth. There had been a loyalist minority 
during the Revolution, and afterwards a strong 
faction which favored a weakly centralized gov- 
ernment and sympathized with the Shays insur- 
; rection. The Federalists controlled the Legislature. 
Oliver Ellsworth, Roger Sherman, and William 
Samuel Johnson, three of the ablest men in the 
state, were sent to the Federal Convention. 1 When 
I the constitution was submitted for ratification, 
I there was at no time a dangerous opposition. 
» Defended by the three framers, as well as by Gov. 
i Huntington, David Daggett, Jeremiah Wadsworth, 
\ Pierrepont Edwards, Joel Barlow, Noah Webster, 
1 Richard Law, and most of the clergy, the con- 
I stitution was easily ratified by 128 to 40 votes. 
( Yet among the opposition were several respectable 
I patriot officers under the leadership of Gen. James 
! Wadsworth. William Williams, the senior coun- 
cilor, at first an opponent because the instrument 
I had no religious test, finally gave a half-hearted 
support. The victory won, the factions were 
J merged, for they were not at odds over questions 
j of local import. Nor did the Anti-Federalists 
completely lose political prestige. 

1 Bernard Steiner, Connecticut 's Ratification of the Federal Consti- 
tution, gives a good discussion of this subject. 

227 



228 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Anti-Federalism cannot be described as the 
forerunner of Republicanism. Some of the Anti- 
Federalists continued to be stout supporters of the 
Standing Order, while, as the above names indicate, 
some of the strongest supporters of the consti- 
tution were to lead the Jeffersonian party. As 
parties there was no binding link between them. 
Divergent views upon foreign affairs provided 
the issue, though a cleavage was bound to come. 
{ All Connecticut supported the French Revolution 
while it retained Anglo-Saxon characteristics of 
moderation, but only radicals could acquiesce in 
its later phases. This extreme element were 
dubbed Jacobins; and their clubs, few indeed in 
Connecticut, were with horror believed to be of 
French model. They proudly viewed the career of 
Joel Barlow, an active Girondist and an ardent 
revolutionist, and approved of the Anti-Federalist, 
Abraham Bishop, who, like his master, Jefferson, 
was an interested spectator. 2 This personal equa- 
tion made the connection between local and French 
Jacobins seem to their neighbors dangerously close A 
Reaction made of others "Anglo-men," who saw' 
no evil in the kings of the coalition. They were 
blamed for so soon forgetting the villainies of 
George III. As both wings became more moder- 
ate, the vast majority were able to join one side 
or the other. Finally the foreign bias gave way 

2 Stiles, Diary, III, 339; Daggett, Three Letters (1800), pp. 5-6. Bar- 
low, in 1791-1792, wrote Advice to Privileged Orders and The Con- 
spiracy of Kings. He also translated C. F. Volney, Ruins or Meditations 
on the Revolutions of Empires. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 229 

to differences of opinion on local and national 
policies, thereby assuring the permanence of the 
factions. 3 

.During the decade, 1 790-1 800, there was prac- 
tically no political life in the modern sense. 4 Elec- 
tions were not contested. The only reasons for a 
scattering vote on the nominations of governor, 
lieutenant governor, assistants and Congressmen 
or local officers, were personal. Even then the 
votes were sufficiently concentrated on certain 
tried, professioal leaders, as hardly to warrant the 
description of being scattered. The poll was ex- 
ceedingly small, for there was no interest which 
would bring out the electorate. Hardly two per- 
cent of the population voted. 5 The addresses of 
the governor to the Legislature were concerned 
with suggestions as to desirable local legislation. 
Men, who later became the most bitter political 
enemies, were during these years acting harmoni- 
ously as brother officers in the Cincinnati and 
Masonic lodges. 
As late as 1796 Gideon Granger and Ephraim 

3 Cf. Sketch of Connecticut politics in Mercury, Aug. 28, Sept. 14, 
1800. 

4 In March, 1794, Democracy, an Epic Poem was published in the 
Courant, and in August, 1795, "The Echo" — both picturing the fright- 
fulness of mob rule. Bishop prefaced his " 1800" oration with a com- 
plaint of the bastings which Republicans got, and Daggett in turn ac- 
cused him of a ten-years hostility to government and clergy. Webster, 
in 1800, described the British and Jacobin factions and encouraged 
Oliver Wolcott to support Adams whom he was opposing. Ford, 
Webster, I, 504-506. Cf. W. A. Robinson, Jefersonian Democracy hi 
New England, pp. 2 ff. 

6 Note, p. 297. 



230 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Kirby as independent candidates for the assist- 
ants' nomination, but probably supported by the 
Jacobin element, could only poll a few hundred 
votes. Even so, Governor Wolcott in 1797 took 
occasion to deprecate the efforts of French par- 
tisans and agents to cause American intervention. 6 
Thomas Day, the state treasurer, delivered in the 
following year a Fourth of July oration on "Party 
Spirit," in which he arraigned men like Jefferson 
who would make American interests subservient 
to those of France by stirring up party rancor. 
Noah Webster, the New Haven orator, on the 
same day exhorted his fellow citizens with a true 
Federalist ring: "Never .... let us exchange 
our civil and religious institutions for the wild 
theories of crazy projectors; or the sober, indus- 
trious moral habits of our country, for experi- 
ments in atheism and lawless democracy. Experi- 
ence is a safe pilot; but experiment is a dangerous 
ocean, full of rocks and shoals." 7 He then asked: 
Why let foreign politics divide us and make us 
party-men ? 

In 1799 an occasional town was said to be con- 

*Courant, May 15, 1797. Of Wolcott, Azel Backus said in his 
funeral sermon: "That he never stooped to court the suffrage of any 
man is a beauty not a blemish of his character. He blushed at the 
thought of being a man of the People in the modern sense." P. 19. 

7 P. 15. Webster wrote (May 12, 1798) to Pickering describing the 
election :" There never was so full an election. The citizens . . . . 
have no wish to be involved in political disputes .... the usual 
vote for governor and council has risen from 3,000 to 7,000 .... 
The number of votes mustered by the clubs will not rise above 590." 
Pickering Mss., XXII, 156, from Robinson, Jeffersonian Democracy, 
p. 18 n. See also Robbins, Diary, I, 54. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 231 

trolled by the local Jacobin Club, which would 

send representatives to the Assembly. In all 

about fifteen or sixteen "Jacobins" were counted. 8 

Senator Uriah Tracy wrote from Litchfield, April 

8, 1799: 

Kirby is, to the disgrace of this town again chosen deputy, 
but he has no cause of triumph .... all the solid, re- 
spectable part of the town, without any preconcern or in- 
trigue, voted against him, and the third time going round 
he just obtained, by the aid of every tag-rag who could 
be mustered, and a whole winter of intrigue and very ex- 
pensive intrigue too .... his triumph is short lived, 
for we shall soon show the ugly whelp his face in the glass. 
Connecticut is substantially right and so is Litchfield. 9 

In the Assembly the silence of the " Jacobins' ' 
was noted, as was their factious support of the 
Anglican petition. Their highest vote, given to 
General Hart for assistant, amounted to i,ooo. 10 
The American Mercury at Hartford and the New 
, London Bee became the organs of the emerging 
opposition party. A press was what was needed, 
I as Matthew Lyon recognized, when he threatened 
\ to revolutionize the state by establishing a Repub- 
! lican paper similar to his Vermont organ. 11 } Yet 
in 1799 Federalist fears were slight, despite Gov- 
ernor Trumbull's suggestion to the Legislature in 
submitting the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions, 
that there were appearances of "unreasonable 
jealousy" or "unguarded passion." 12 

8 Courant, Feb. 25, Apr. 22, June 3, 1799. 

9 Gibbs, Administrations of Washington and Adams, II, 232. 

10 Courant, Oct. 28, 1799. 

11 New Haven Hist. Soc, Papers, VI, 291; Courant, Dec. 1, 1800. 

12 Courant, May 13, 20, June 3, 1799. There is some suggestive 
material in Tutor Zechariah Lewis, Oration, July 4, 1799. 



232 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

In 1800 the Republicans formally organized for 
the Jeffersonian campaign, in a meeting called at 
the home of Pierrepont Edwards of New Haven. 13 
Edwards was a federal district judge and probably 
the leading lawyer in his vicinity. A brother of 
Jonathan Edwards, Jr., long pastor of North 
Church, New Haven, an uncle of President D wight 
and of that notorious Republican, Aaron Burr, re- 
lated to Tapping Reeve by marriage, he was a rep- 
resentative of the state aristocracy. His position 
was of value to the nascent party in a community 
bound by local family prestige. Burr probably 
lent his organizing ability, for later he made an 
electioneering tour into the state. Among the 
leaders interested were General William Hart, Col- 
onel Ephraim Kirby, Alexander Wolcott, Gideon 
Granger, Abraham Bishop, and Asa Spalding. 

Abraham Bishop inaugurated the partisan strug- 
gle, with his Commencement Address on "The 
Extent and Power of Political Delusions." It 
will suffice to remark here that, through its 
cynical attack on the Standing Order, the church, 
the clergy, and the college, it gave the tone 
of bitterness characterizing the generation-long 
campaign of the opposition party. Bishop's 
attack recoiled on himself. He was described as 
an atheistical Jacobin, seeking to arouse the 
latent passions of class and sectarian hatred, in an 
endeavor to overturn religion and law. He was 
the unworthy son of a fine family whose glory was 

13 Greene, Religious Liberty, pp. 416-418, 474; Daggett, Essay 
(1803), p. 19. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 233 

the well-being of the Christian commonwealth. 
He was embroiling families and neighborhoods in 
factious struggles, hitherto unknown in the state. 
His reputation was torn to shreds. 

The Republican principles were not yet clearly 
enunciated. Aside from the religious questions, 
which gave Republicanism an anticlerical char- 
acter, the issues were those of the national Jeffer- 
sonian party. Republicans demanded more de- 
mocracy in opposition to the Anglo-men, whom 
they described as desirous of waging war upon 
France in support of old-world aristocracies and 
their beloved English constitution. If the Federal- 
ists arrogated to themselves the title of "friends 
of religion and order," Republicans would be 
known as the successors of the patriots, "friends 
of liberty and the constitution." They called for 
the districting of the state, in order that the mem- 
bership in Congress be representative. Presi- 
dential electors, made up of the governor, lieuten- 
ant governor, and the five judges of the superior 
court, were described as hostile to the spirit of 
free government. 

The new party waged a vigorous spring cam- 
paign in 1800. The Federalists were taken by 
surprise, so that their vote was somewhat scat- 
tered; while the Democrats massed their vote 
with unusual success. In this way General Wil- 
liam Hart with 1,587 votes attained fourteenth 
and Gideon Granger with 1,052 votes the eight- 
teenth place on the congressional nomination. 14 

14 Mercury, May 22, 1800. 



234 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

While the electoral mechanism made success im- 
possible, winning places on the list was encourag- 
ing in that it aroused high hopes. Federalist vigi- 
lance prevented a like happening for a long time, 
for a surprise could succeed but once. 

The Presidential campaign commenced early. 18 
Jefferson's character and religious views were 
castigated by Federalists, lay and clerical. To 
counteract these injurious calumnies the Repub- 
licans printed a free pamphlet, giving extracts 
from Jefferson's "Notes on Virginia" to prove him 
a God-fearing man. Federalist leaders and papers 
urged the freemen to look to New York and Penn- 
sylvania for the results wrought by a revolution- 
ary party. Republicans were accused of counter- 
feiting assistants' nominations, in order to scatter 
the votes of unsuspecting freemen; of meeting in 
private cabals ; of sending missionaries to harangue 
people in clubs and taverns; and of actually nomi- 
nating themselves. The touring of the eastern 
counties by the Republican candidate for Congress 
was used as proof of the brazen affrontery of 
demagogues. It was indeed a revolutionary 
manoeuver, for nominations had always been 
clothed with a popular character and open elec- 
tioneering was unknown. 16 Every effort was 

15 Chauncey Goodrich wrote from Hartford, Aug. 26, 1800: "The 
Democrats have taken courage to come out into the open day, and are 
very busy. A few active recruits have joined them .... As 
yet, it is not known that any character of worth has gone over to their 
side." Gibbs, op. cit., II, 411. Welling, Connecticut Federalism, pp. 
296 ff.; H. S. Randall, Life of Jefferson, II, 642 ff.; Adams, History of 
U. S., I, 312 ff.; Courant, July 7, Sept. 1, 29, 1800. 

u Courant, Aug 4, Sept. 1; Mercury, Sept. 11, 1800. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 235 

made to prevent Republican success by beseeching 
electors to attend the fall meeting and vote for 
known Federalists. A newspaper reign of terror 
appears to have been inaugurated to intimidate 
Republican editors. 17 The result of the freemen's 
meetings was anxiously awaited. In the assist- 
ants' nomination Hart won the eighteenth place. 
For Congress the seven elected were Federalists, 
but Hart received the eighth and Granger the 
ninth place. The Assembly again had " demo- 
cratic" members, though not as many as in the 
spring. Governor Trumbull made his first politi- 
cal speech, calling upon Providence to preserve 
the state from the dangerous innovations of the 
time. 18 

17 Robbins, Diary, I, 124, reported from Danbury: "The Democratic 
editor in this town has blown out and moved to Norwalk. The boys 
attended him out of town with bells, quills, etc." Charles Holt of the 
New London Bee was fined $200 and sentenced to three months im- 
prisonment by the circuit court. There was a movement to establish 
the Republican Optic at Litchfield. Mercury, Sept. 25, 1800; Courant, 
Apr. 21, Dec. 1, 1800. 

18 Hart received 3,892 votes to 9,625 for William Hillhouse. For 
Congress Hart polled 3,250 votes to Samuel Dana's 6,273. Courant, 
Oct. 13, 20, 27; Mercury, Oct. 23; Robbins, Diary, I, 123. Webster 
to Wolcott, Sept. 17, 1800: "We have had the warmest election in 
Connecticut that I ever saw. We have defeated the Jacobins in this 
town [New Haven]; in others the victory is upon their side. Their 
astonishing exertions, secrecy, and discipline have effected much — their 
lies and misrepresentations exceed all credibility. They will not, I 
believe, carry any important point this time — but the principles of 
corruption are spreading fast in Connecticut — and the last stronghold 
of republicanism is so violently assaulted that its fate is uncertain. I 
have long believed that no government in which the right of suffrage 
is founded on population can be durable — and the cheapness of that 
right will greatly accelerate the destruction of ours." Ford, Webster, 
II, 506 



236 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Federalists congratulated themselves on their 
success. With the Republican poll well over 
3,000, they were thankful that an unusual Federal- 
ist vote was cast. Otherwise, the party of disorder 
would have saddled itself in power, displacing the 
tried men of the old order. 

Republicans, it was said, were so organized and 
drilled blindly to vote for designated characters, 
that their chances of success were vastly increased. 
In Connecticut, as elsewhere, the Jeffersonian 
party was educating the people to use the ballot 
and not to leave the business of governing to a 
professional class. To counteract Republican ap- 
peals, Federalist leaders were forced to bring out 
their whole voting strength. The ballot was to 
become an instrument of value, as more than 
a nominal rule of the people was about to be 
developed through party life. The poll became 
larger ; and more stress was laid upon the privilege 
of suffrage. The national election of 1800 encour- 
aged Republicans to "revolutionize" Connecticut. 

The campaign of 1801 was inaugurated by a 
state gathering of a thousand Republicans, at 
Wallingford on March 11, to celebrate the Jeffer- 
son-Burr victory. 19 This was the first of a series 
of party jubilees which aroused popular interest, 
much as did the Methodist camp-meeting, from 
which they probably originated. To the sober 
Federalist it was a contemptible pandering to the 
multitude. Gideon Granger read the Declaration 
of Independence; Rev. Stanley Griswold preached 

19 Mercury, Mar. 19, 26, Apr. 1, June 11; Courant, Mar. 9, 23, 1801. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 237 

the sermon; and after Pierrepont Edwards had 
read Jefferson's inaugural address, Abraham Bishop 
delivered an oration, taking as his motto, "Our 
Statesmen to the Constitution and our Clergy to 
the Bible." Anticlerical as it was in bias, its 
tone was more destructive, with its insistence that 
the state was without a constitution. The rally 
ended with a banquet at which toasts were given 
to the Republican leaders in nation and state, to 
true religion, and to the destruction of a political 
ministry and a state church. J 

• v The anticlerical plank was made emphatic. 
The union of church and state was becoming the 
crucial issue, as the clergy were condemned as 
"political parsons." 20 Fisher Ames, who was 
desirous of making tne Boston Palladium a Lon- 
don Gazette, wrote to Theodore Dwight, asking 
that the clergy and good men assist its circulation, 
as they were doing in Massachusetts. He con- 
tinued: "An active spirit must be aroused in 
every town to check the incessant proselytizing 
acts of the Jacobins, who will soon or late subvert 
Connecticut, as surely as other States unless 
resisted with a spirit as ardent as their own." 21 

20 "Those states which are most under the hierarchical yoke, will be 
last .... The favorite theme of uniting church and state, has 
been more cherished in New England than in any other part of the 
United States, and more in Connecticut than any other state. The 
numerous advocates of this system will not yield, 'till the influence of 
truth, and the voice of the people become too powerful for further 
resistance." Mercury, May 11, 1801. 

21 He said this paper " should whip Jacobins as a gentleman would a 
chimney-sweeper, at arm's length, and keeping aloof from his soot." 
Fisher Ames, I, 292-295, 315. 



238 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Federalists did not deny the deep-rooted influence 
of the clergy, but defended it as something de- 
sirable. 22 They defined the issue as one between 
"Religion and Infidelity, Morality and Debauch- 
ery, legal Government and total Disorganization." 
Resenting what they termed an infidelic attack 
on the church and its ministry, they questioned 
the Christian motives of the Baptists and Metho- 
dists who were in accord. Their stand was honest, 
for they had convinced themselves that only under 
the ancient system could the commonwealth's wel- 
fare be assured. Theirs was the conservatism of 
an intrenched interest. 

In the spring election of 1801 Republican can- 
didates first appeared for governor and lieutenant 
governor, Judge Richard Law and Colonel Eph- 
riam Kirby. 23 Against neither of them could a 
reasonable objection be raised. Law was an 
excellent justice, but a political apostate. That 
was enough! Than Kirby, no contemporary did 
more to raise the Connecticut bar and legal educa- 
tion to a higher level. Upon counting the vote 

22 Courant, Jan. 12, Feb. 2, 1801; D wight, Travels, IV, 404 ff.; Robbins, 
Diary, I, 135. Theodore Dwight's frequently quoted Oration of 
1801, after describing the lowering tone of religion and morals, broken 
family ties, asked: "The outlaws of Europe, the fugitives from the 
pillory, and the gallows, have undertaken to assist our own abandoned 

citizens, in the pleasing work of destroying Connecticut 

Can imagination paint anything more dreadful on this side of hell?" 
Pp. 15-17, 28-31. 

23 Courant, Apr. 6, May 18, 25, 1801. For biographical notices of 
Kirby, see: Kilbourne, Sketches, pp. 103-107; Orcutt, Torrington, p. 
207; Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 236; Mercury, Dec. 13, 1804; May 
16, 1805. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 239 

it was found that Governor Trumbull and Lieu- 
tenant Governor Treadwell had received 11,156 
and 9,066 against 1,056 and 2,038 votes for their 
opponents. Calvin Goddard for Congress re- 
ceived 7,397 votes as against 3,256 for Granger. 
The Republicans had at least forced out the 
Federalist vote, for such a poll for governor had 
never been recorded. In the Assembly the new 
party won thirty-three seats, or about a sixth. 
Certain towns were becoming Republican strong- 
holds, whereas other doubtful towns were inclining 
toward Republicanism. A study of the situation 
will show Republican strength throughout the state. 

Jefferson's election materially benefited the local 
organization, in furnishing "deserving democrats" f 
with paying federal offices. They were thus 
enabled to carry on their political propaganda and 
build a Republican machine. It was excusable, 
for the minority party received no state or local 
appointments, and without patronage the opposi- 
tion could not have maintained itself so many 
years. This explained the persistence which 
astounded the Federalists, who expected that each 
of their overpowering victories would cause oppo- 
sition to die of sheer desperation. 

Nothing excited Connecticut as much as Jeffer- 
sbn's removal of Elizur Goodrich from the col- 
lectorship of New Haven, and the appointment 
ol the aged mayor, Samuel Bishop. 24 Goodrich, 

24 Courant, Mar. 2, 30, June 15, July 30, 1801; Mercury, June 11, 18, 
July 23, 1801; Ford, Webster, I, 515-522; Greene, Religious Liberty 
pp. 421-423; Charles Burr Todd, Life of Col. Aaron Burr, p. 93; C. R 
Fish, Civil Service and the Patronage, pp. 33-38. 



240 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

named by Adams and approved by the Senate, 
February 19, 1801, resigned his seat in Congress 
to accept the sinecure. The reason for the 
removal, besides that of place-making, was Good- 
rich's unbecoming activity in advancing the inter- 
ests of Aaron Burr before Congress. The mer- 
chants of New Haven drew up a memorial to the 
President, criticizing the appointment of a man 
nearly eighty years of age who could only perform 
his duties through clerks and who was already 
overburdened with state and local offices. Their 
real complaint was that his "notorious" son would 
be the actual collector. Jefferson in reply de- 
fended the appointment because of the noble 
career of Bishop and the advantage of his judg- 
ment, if not his clerical labor, in the office. Criti- 
cism was not checked, nor was there a lessening of 
assaults on Abraham Bishop and patronage evils. 
Goodrich as a Federalist martyr was made professor 
of law at Yale, elevated to the Council, and on the. 
elder Bishop's death elected mayor of New Haven. 25 J 
The case was doubly important, as the first breach 
in Connecticut Federalism, as the first glimpse 
of democracy triumphant. 

' Abraham Bishop, the " first consul," succeeded 
his father as collector with fees of about $3,6oo. 26 
The " steady, firm and unshaken Republican," 
Gideon Granger, was made Postmaster-General 
with a $3,000 salary, but his duties at the capital 

25 Courant, Sept. 21, 1803. 

26 Bentley, Diary, III, 257; Courant, Sept. 7, Oct. 12, 1803; Mercury, 
Oct. 13, 1803. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 241 

did not prevent a tour of his native state about 
election time. 27 Alexander Wolcot t was given 
the Middletown collectorship, worth close to $3,000 
a year, in the place of "a violent, irritable, priest- 
ridden, implacable, ferocious federalist," whose 
removal Pierrepont Edwards advised. Madison in 
181 1 nominated Wolcott for the Supreme Court, 
but the Senate failed to confirm him. 28 Granger 
remembered some of his friends with postmaster- 
ships, among them Bishop's brother-in-law, Jona- 
than Law of Hartford. 29 Barlow was honored 
with a French mission. Ephraim Kirby, a revenue 
supervisor, was appointed a judge for Louisiana 
territory, just prior to his death. 30 Commissioner- 
ships of bankruptcy furnished positions for twelve 
men. Others were awarded government con- 
tracts. 31 In all, a fairly extensive list could be 
compiled. 

Federalists found in the patronage a vulnerable 
point, to be continually assaulted. The high 
salaries of collectorships had a sinister look to a 

"Courant, Nov. 16, 1801; June 28, 1802; Dexter, Biographical 
Sketches, IV, 546 ff. 

28 Fish, Civil Service, pp. 33-34; Mercury, Aug. 20, 1801; Sept. 
11, 18, 1806; Feb. 14, 1811; Courant, Feb. 13, 1811; Dexter, Biographical 
Sketches, IV, 80-82. 

29 New Haven, Litchfield, Durham, for instance. Granger was an 
ardent spoilsman, being removed in 1814 for this reason. Courant, 
Feb. 22, Nov. 22, 1802; Jan. 12, June 5, 1803; Adams, History of U. S., 
VII, 399; Andrews, John Cotton Smith, p. 61. 

30 Mercury, July 16, 1801; Dec. 13, 1804. 

31 Courant, July 19, 1802; June 11, 1806; Mar. 16, 1808. The Con- 
necticut Gazette counted nineteen men who were rewarded for "useful 
labors." Then it must be remembered the extension of business meant 
additional Republican postmasters, revenue offices, etc. 



242 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

people whose governor and college president did 
not receive a third as much. Parallel columns 
of fees paid federal and local officials gave weight 
to charges of federal corruption and extravagance. 
Republican leaders were described as "a set of 
office-holders and office-seekers, under the National 
Government .... using every possible ex- 
ertion to destroy this State." 32 They were rich 
demagogues receiving fabulous salaries out of the 
public treasury, riding in carriages, stirring up 
class strife by wickedly deceiving the populace 
in an attempt to gain control of the state. As 
these attacks were not without effect, it would 
seem that patronage was morally injurious to 
Republican growth, even though it furnished the 
sinews of party patriotism. 

In the fall of 1801 a Republican list for assistants 
was issued. An excuse was deemed necessary, so 
it was suggested that President Dwight's clique 
had secretly fathered a Federal-Republican list. 33 
The Republican list included certain Federalists 
of broad type, Williams, Samuel Johnson, and 
Zephaniah Swift, an augury of the later Tolera- 
tion party. While the Republican nomination was 
bitterly assailed, it was eminently respectable, 
some five being Revolutionary officers, another a 

32 Courant, Mar. 12, 1806. See: Courant, June 4, 11, 1806; July 3, 
1811; Apr. 6, 1813. In 1809 Webster wrote to Madison that he would 
do well by appointing religious men in Connecticut. Ford, Webster, 
I, 529. II, 60 ff. 

33 Mercury, Sept. 17, 1801. The Middlesex Gazette had already 
printed the Republican list. Courant, Sept. 14. For the votes see: 
Courant, Sept. 28, 1801; Mercury, Oct. 22, 1801. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 243 

physician, and others lawyers. At the polls their 
highest man, Granger, received a vote of 3,936 
against 10,583 for Hillhouse. For Congress, 
Granger polled 4,187 votes to 7,021 for Congress- 
man Benjamin Tallmadge. In the Assembly forty 
Republican representatives answered the roll. 
Every office of importance was contested, so men 
were bound to regard Republicanism as a party, 
not a faction. . 

I/The year, 1802, gave to the opposition a platform 
of local issues about which a determined fight could 
be waged. Pointing to the Federalist stand-up 
law, which was intended to strengthen the hold of 
the Standing Order, Republicans were able to 
set forth as their first principles the purity and 
secrecy of elections and an extension of the suffrage. ) 
This made an appeal to the sectarian, the farmer, 
and mechanic, whose near ones were often "por- 
poises," as well as to the non-voters whose in- 
fluence might be of value. This tinkering with 
the electoral machinery vitalized interest in the 
question of whether or not the state had a con- 
stitution. To Bishop belongs the credit of mak- 
ing the lack of a written constitution a political 
issue. Federalists were thrown on the defensive, 
a political disadvantage of no mean importance. 
Theodore Dwight in an oration before the Society 
of Cincinnati, a supposedly non-partisan, patriotic 
order, undertook a defense. He described the 
constitution as unwritten, but resting its claims 
on the permanence of a hundred and fifty years, 
during which it had withstood every assault of 



244 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

royal prerogative, revolution and faction. It was 
a government based on the Charter of 1662, which 
was "little more than a re-establishment of the 
first constitution, with somewhat more explic- 
itness," tested by long usage and experience. 
Dwight's oration was inspired. Henceforth be- 
lief in the constitution was one of the "steady 
habits," a political dogma to which every friend of 
religion and morals must unquestioningly subscribe.) 

Elder John Leland in his sermons of 1801 and 
1802 called for the abolition of the ecclesiastical 
constitutions, and of compulsory religious sup- 
port. 34 He described the people of Connecticut as 
politically ignorant, for "they have been trained 
too much in the habit of trusting the concerns of 
religion and policy to their rulers." , He suggested 
a constitutional convention, which he computed 
would not cost more than five cents a head. Then 
a printed constitution could be presented t6 every 
freeman for a like sum. Hence for an expenditure 
of ten cents per man, the state could have a con- 
stitution and every freeman would be able to judge 
whether this or that law was constitutional. 
He exclaimed: What a saving in lawyer's fees! 

If ever there should be a constitution, he hoped 
that, "despite the deep rooted modes and habits," 
religious liberty would be granted. Yet he was 
not sanguine, "considering the long accustomed 
habits of Connecticut, the prejudices of the people, 
and the present connection that exists between 
religion and property — religion and honor — re- 

34 Sermon (1801), pp. 1-28; Dissenters' Strong Box, pp. 30-36. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 245 

ligion and education." With regard to the Federal- 
ist contention that a constitution then existed, 
he wrote: 

The people of Connecticut have never been asked, by 
those in authority, what form of government they would 
choose; nor in fact, whether they would have any form at 
all. For want of a specific constitution, the rulers run 
without bridle or bit, or anything to draw them up to the 
ring-bolt. Should the legislature make a law, to perpetuate 
themselves in office for life; this law would immediately 
become part of their constitution; and who would call them 
to account therefor? 

Leland thus brought the constitutional question 
before the Baptist voters, who were led to see in 
a written constitution the only hope of disestab- 

I lishment. Hence Republican success became a reli- 

| gious hope with them and with the Methodists who 

j were soon to fall into line. ' 
(^ " Hancock" in an appeal to the Republican voters, 

! April, 1802, put the question squarely: 



You exhibit to the world the rare and perhaps unprece- 
dented example, of a people peaceably and quietly consent- 
ing to be governed, without any compact which secures 
rights to yourselves, or delegates powers to your rulers . 
. . . I am ready to admit that you have been influenced 
by a sacred regard for order and government, otherwise 
you would not, ever since the American Revolution, have 
consented to be governed by a charter given your ancestors 
! by a British King, and which since your independence has 
separated you from Britain, has been imposed on you by 
an act of a legislature not authorized to make the imposition. 35 

He argued: Your legislators have been honest 
in the past, but history teaches the story of aspir- 

35 Mercury, Apr. 8, 1802. 



246 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

ing men, intoxicated with power. You have re- 
elected them from force of habit, not because of 
their proven worth, for there is no criterion of 
their worth. There will be imperceptible increases 
of power and gradual encroachments on the part 
of your rulers, who will brand inquiry as licentious- 
ness, innovation, or infidelity.' He continued: 

Let me ask you if a legislative majority of judges and 
justices, has not by law provided that the poor man, who 
trudged on foot his weary pilgrimage through life, should 
do the same quantity of labour in the public roads as the 
rich man; while the Justice or Judge, the Clergyman and 
Physician who encumbered the highways with his Waggon's 
six cattle team and pleasure Carriage, should bear no part 
of the burden. 

Why should not officials serve in the militia and 
defend the state, of whose wealth they are the 
chief holders? They have deprived you of an 
independent judiciary and a free vote. He closed 
warningly : 

You cannot be insensible that the work of a Connecticut 
Legislator is an arduous, a weighty task. He has not only 
to guard the people against themselves, but has also the 
more difficult — the herculean labour of guarding the people 
against himself. Having no Constitution to limit him, he 
finds it necessary to be constantly on his guard against the 
delusions of power and Ambition. He has to contend against 
his most favorite wishes; his fondest hopes. When he finds 
it in his power to gratify these hopes — when he finds no 
check but in the elective voice of the people; and when he 
finds this elective voice almost confined by law, to those 
who have similar interests with himself — prudence deserts 
her helm — ambition seizes it — and the rights cf the people 
are lost in the usurpation of the statesman. 

The Republicans published their nomination 
list, which they described as differing from the 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 247 

Federalist list, in that it included men of various 
classes, professions and creeds. 36 It was not a 
Congregational lawyer's list nor restricted to the 
Connecticut valley towns. Farmers as lovers of 
economy were asked for support. Federalists 
aroused, frantically called forth their non-active 
freemen. The campaign, like its successors, 
abounded in bitter recriminations, personal at- 
tacks, and in newspaper controversies between pug- 
naciously partisan editors. 37 

■The April, 1802, vote was large. The city of 
Hartford was said to have cast its heaviest vote, 
amounting to 8.2 per cent of the population. 
Other towns did equally well. The total vote for 
governor amounted to 15,891, with a majority for 
Governor Trumbull of 6,875 over Ephraim Kirby. 38 
About fifty-five Republican members were sent to 
the Legislature, in spite of the new election law and 
the failure of New Haven's Republican papery 
Not a man were the Republicans able to name on 

36 Mercury, Apr. 8. After this printed lists were usual. Issued 
at first apologetically by the newspapers, they were soon made out in 
party caucus and issued under the signature of the chairman, with an 
appeal to the voters. 

37 An interesting controversy was that between Alexander Wolcott 
and Senator Uriah Tracy, life-long friends made rabid enemies by poli- 
tics. To Senator Hillhouse, who joined in proclaiming Wolcott's 
profligacy, the latter wrote: "If I am a profligate man, to prove it will 
not be difficult, nor to you an unpleasant task." Mercury, Feb. 28, 
Mar. 25 and Aug, 19, 1802. The editor of the Mercury deprecated 
attacks on Kirby, a man long honored by editors like the one in 
Middle town, who excused libels on Republicans as "strokes of wit." 
See Courant, Aug. 16. 

38 Courant, Apr. 9; Mercury, May 20. 



248 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

the assistants' list, despite their concentration of 
votes. New London County, which had gone 
Republican by a small majority in October, 1801, 
was again Federalist. Small wonder that the 
General Election was a gala day, and that Federalist 
leaders and visiting clergy rejoiced in the failure 
of the "disorganizes." 

The fall election resulted in another contest, even 
Hartford becoming so doubtful that the old order 
confessedly were obliged to recruit voters. It was 
estimated that between seventy and eighty Re- 
publican representatives were elected, but the 
number was exaggerated, for only fifty- three votes 
were cast for Kirby for Senator against one hundred 
and seventeen for James Hillhouse. The vote on 
the assistants' nomination showed a marked Re- 
publican increase, but a much larger Federalist 
decrease. 39 The Federalist problem was to hold 
their voters to the polls lest, caught unawares, they 
be defeated by a better directed minority. 

On March 9, 1803, another Republican festival 
was held at New Haven. 40 Apparently the Walling- 
ford gathering was regarded as a success in propa- 
gating Republican principles and in winning votes. 
Two dissenting elders conducted the religious ob- 
servances. Pierrepont Edwards, chairman of the 
Republican state committee, was the orator of 
the day. At the banquet the usual toasts were 



z 'Courant, Sept. 27, Nov. 8; Mercury, Sept. 23, Nov. 4, 1802. 
40 Mercury, Mar. 3, 17, 24, 1803; Courant, Feb. 9, Mar. 16, Apr. 6, 
1803. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 249 

heard. 41 The Courant admitted that about fifteen 
hundred persons attended, but no fine ladies and 
few men of worth, for the gathering was held in 
contempt by merchants, sea captains, and re- 
spectable mechanics. The bishop of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church refused to attend, possibly, the 
editor assured his readers, because he remembered 
a prayer of his church: "From privy conspiracy 
and sedition — Good Lord deliver us." The mere 
fact that Bishop Jarvis was invited was in itself a 
significant bid for Episcopalian support. It was to 
be a forlorn hope for several years, partly because 
of the aristocratic tendencies of this very bishop., 
In answer to its rival's description of the assem'- 
blage as a ragged throng, the American Mercury 
declared that those who sat on the stage alone 
were worth more "than Dwight's whole corpora- 
tion," by a hundred thousand dollars. This the 
Courant agreed might well be; for the corporation 
was made up of ministers of small means and mem- 
bers of the Council who were elevated by the 
people because of assured merit. The festival was 
well advertised, thereby giving prominence to 
democratic principles and occasioning more con- 
troversial and personal attacks 

The New Haven celebration opened the April 
campaign. The extenson of the suffrage, which 
had been defeated in the last session, the necessity 

41 "The State of Connecticut— May its civil rights soon have con 
stitutional bounds — its professional men be confined within their limits 
and its courts be reduced from annual dependence on Suitors and 
Advocates." Mercury, Mar. 17. 



250 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

of a constitution, the position of lawyers and 
clergy, the extravagance of the local government, 
and the unfair system of taxation were brought 
before the people. Rev. Jonathan Bird denounced 
things Republican in a sermon, only to find him- 
self and his kind valiantly attacked by General 
Hart. The author of the " Porpoises" articles, 
supposedly Bishop, argued that taxation which 
was in no way based on valuation, but upon the 
century-old plan of dividing all property into 
classes and did not include the newer forms of 
wealth, was grossly unfair to the poor man. Yet 
all attempts to revise the faulty system, such as 
had been accomplished in Massachusetts, were 
defeated by the special interests. That, he con- 
tended, was bound to be the case while the state 
contented itself with "the unauthorized farce" 
of a constitution under which perfect beings, but 
not the frail men of the work-a-day world, might 
live. His attack on lawyers must have lost force 
in view of the published list of leading Republi- 
cans who were bred to the law. 42 

Both parties were determined to muster their 
full strength. With a "stand-pat" program Fed- 
eralists found it doubly hard. Yet they were able 
to impress unthinking voters with the dangers 
ahead. An anonymous address, probably by Noah 
Webster, appealed for the re-election of the old 
officers: "Citizens of Connecticut! Will you also 
add to the long list of republics basely ungrateful?" 
Republicans urged the defeat of the enemies of 

42 Mercury, Mar. 3, 31; C our ant, Apr. 6, 1803. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 251 

the national government, 43 the friends of Alien 
and Sedition laws, of armies and navies. It was 
pointed out that Republican economy had already 
saved the voter enough so that he could afford the 
monetary loss of attendance at the polls. 

Party activity was attested by a record vote of 
22,446 for governor, Trumbull receiving 14,375. 
Yet, as it represented only a trifle less than nine 
per cent of the population, the Republican con- 
tention that a goodly proportion of residents were 
non-freemen rather than inactive freemen, seems 
close to the truth. About three-quarters of the 
Legislature were Federalist and nearly four-fifths 
of the towns. Only forty Republican representa- 
tives were elected, and in every county save Tolland 
their vote showed a decrease. 44 Apparently the 
Republican plan of districting the state and ap- 
pointing district and town committees had failed. 
They denied despondency, consoling themselves 
with the reflection that they had forced the Federal- 
ists to bring out in carriages their reserves of aged 
men and invalids, and that they had driven parsons 
to preach pulpit politics. Party life was indeed 
bringing out the vote, Federalists exhorting men 
by pointing out the hardships Washington used 

43 Daggett vigorously denied this in a review of the states' relations 
with the national government since 1776. Address (1803). Cf. J. Q. 
Adams's charge that Senator Tracy and other ardent New England 
Federalists looked toward separation; and denials in 1829 by James 
Gould, James Hillhouse, John Cotton Smith, S. Baldwin, Col. Tallmadge 
and Calvin Goddard. Henry Adams, Documents Relating to New Eng- 
land Federalism, pp. 93 ff., 342, 354 ff. 

44 Courant, Apr. 20, May 18; Mercury, May 12, 19, 1803. 



252 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

to undergo to attend an election. As Fisher Ames 
wrote to Theodore Dwight: "The best men among 
the Federalists are forced out in self-defence, — 
the immortals of the Persian army or sacred band 
of Pelopidas." 45 General Election was a glorious 
Federalist celebration, ministers even from the 
neighboring states gathering to rejoice in the con- 
stancy of Connecticut. 46 

The September campaign was less spirited. 47 
A celebration in honor of the acquisition of Louisiana 
had been held in August in Litchfield to instil 
Republicanism into that county. The purchase, 
from the financial rather than constitutional side, 
was attacked by the Federalists, who saw corruption 
in a vast expenditure for bogs, mountains and 
Indians, which would cost Connecticut alone 
$750, ooo. 48 Republicans were taxed with inject- 
ing the religious issue because they had supported 
the Baptist petition, which sought a religious dis- 
establishment. Senator Uriah Tracy issued a 
manifesto in defense of the Council as the state's 
true anchorage to Washingtonian principles, and in 
condemnation of the Republican list as irrespon- 
sible men secretly advanced. 

A large vote was polled in September, 1803, the 
assistants' nomination being lead by Goodrich, 

45 Fisher Ames, I, 335-336. 

46 They were forced to admit that this cost the state $117.50, in the 
face of Democratic charges. Courant, May 18, June 22, 1803. 

47 Alexander Wolcott's address to the freemen, and Burr's visit to 
confer with Generals Hart and Wilcox, were the noteworthy features. 
Courant, Sept. 14, 1803. 

48 Courant, June 1, Aug. 10, Sept. 11, 1803. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 253 

with 11,438 votes to Asa Spalding's 6,815. For 
the Assembly, Republicans claimed sixty-three 
men, out of a total of two hundred and three. 49 
At any rate the opposition party had no reason 
to be downhearted. 

The spring elections of 1804 proved most un- 
satisfactory to the Federalists. A dropping off 
of a fifth in the vote struck the Federalists es- 
pecially hard, so that Trumbull's majority was 
less by about twenty-three hundred. Seventy- 
eight Republican representatives were elected, 
from forty-seven towns. Apparently the Federalist 
appeal against the Virginian rule supported by 
discontented persons and foreigners had lost force. 
Jefferson's administration, by its moderation and 
prosperity, made absurd the old fears with which 
Federalism inspired its adherents. As the Inde- 
pendent Chronicle reviewed the situation: "In Con- 
necticut truth and reason are pervading the mass 
of the people. A hallowed jealousy is shaking 
their bigoted assemblies and the pontifical chair 
of the clergy totters beneath them." 50 

In honor of the Louisiana purchase, a Republican 
celebration was held at Hartford, May 11, i8o4. B1 
All of the leaders were present at the banquet to 
hear Abraham Bishop discuss the state's constitu- 

49 Spalding was a graduate of Yale and the Litchfield Law School, 
and a prominent lawyer of Norwich. At the time of his death, 1811, 
he was about the wealthiest man in the eastern counties. Pease and 
Niles, Gazetteer, p. 149; Mercury, Aug. 22, 29, Oct. 20, 1811. 

50 In Courant, Mar. 15. See Conn. Herald, June 12; Mercury, Apr. 
19, 26, May 7, 24; Courant, Apr. 4, May 16, 1804. 

51 Mercury, Apr. 12, May 17, 1804; Trumbull, Historical Notes, p. 25. 



254 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

tional history. He contended that in practice the 
lack of a popularly constituted government had 
resulted in the concentration of all power in the 
hands of the Council, or rather in the hands of 
seven lawyers, who made up a working majority 
of that body. He dwelt upon the dependence of 
the courts and impressed his audience with the 
view that Federalism and reaction could not pre- 
vail under the changes which a constitution would 
bring about. Bishop suggested: "That the people 
be convened to form a constitution which shall 
separate the legislative, executive and judicial powers, 
— shall define the qualifications of freemen, so that 
legislators shall not tamper with election laws, and 
shall district the state so that freemen may judge of 
the candidates for their suffrages.'' 

This idea met with such immediate favor, that 
the general committee published his speech as a 
campaign document. Connecticut was described 
as an "elective despotism or rather elective aris- 
tocracy." 52 Bishop did not originate the idea of 
calling a convention, but he realized its political 
value. While not of a creative mind, he was an 
astute politician. As a matter of state welfare 
it was regrettable that the constitutional question 
had become political ; but from the purely Republi- 
can standpoint, the merger was a master's stroke. 

The New Haven meeting, August 29, 1804, 
marked a milestone in Republican affairs. 63 A 

52 Mercury, Aug. 16, 1804. 

53 For an account of the convention: Mercury, Aug. 9, Sept. 6; 
Courant, Aug. 22; Trumbull, Historical Notes, p. 27; Lamed, Windham 
County, II, 223; Church Ms.; Judd's Address. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 255 

call had been sent out by a general committee of 
Republicans, headed by Pierrepont Edwards, which 
declared that the state was without a constitution 
and that obviously change would not originate 
with those in power, for rulers will not willingly 
diminish their own powers. There need be no 
alarm, it was said, for the intention was simply 
to advance the movement for a written constitu- 
tion, setting forth principles of right government, 
favoring no class or party, guaranteeing equal 
privileges to all, and preventing the present con- 
centration of power. Delegates chosen by demo- 
cratic caucuses in ninety-seven towns took seats 
in this somewhat irregular convention. This body 
affords an excellent example of a political convention 
drawing up a platform. William Judd was named 
chairman of this secretly conducted gathering. 
Resolutions were passed that, as the state was 
without a constitution, an address should be 
drafted and widely published, advising "that it is 
expedient to take measures preparatory to the for- 
mation of a constitution." Henceforth the calling 
of a convention became the cardinal Republican 
plank. ' 

The address to the freemen commenced with the 
usual platitudes, that all men are created equal, 
that certain natural rights are inalienable, and that 
government should be grounded in the consent 
of the governed. 54 Since 1776, when the Legisla- 
ture usurped the people's sovereignty, there was 

54 Mercury, Sept. 6. It was printed as a handbill for free distribu- 
tion. Trumbull, Historical Notes, p. 28. 



256 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

no law that any legislature could not revoke. All 
the other states, save Rhode Island, had drawn up 
constitutions, and the four new states had done like- 
wise. Evidently it was not a question of party poli- 
tics, but a universal desire to secure in a written 
contract the results of the Revolution. These con- 
stitutions did not violate existing privileges, but 
defined civil and religious rights, separated the 
powers of government, limited the departments, 
and established in the people the power of amend- 
ment. To allow a legislature to rule, bound only 
by its own pleasure, was dangerous folly. With 
a constitution, one religious denomination could not 
bind another, nor the legislative branch of govern- 
ment make dependent the judiciary; nor could 
suffrage privileges be curtailed. If everything 
has gone well and all is secure, then let the voice 
of the people maintain the present establishment. 
To Republicans, the majority party in the nation, 
it seemed "that the government appeared to favor 
the ruling class, to tend toward aristocracy and 
the embarrassment of democracy, to oppose the 
central government, support a prejudiced judiciary, 
and to concentrate all powers in the face of warn- 
ing precedents." In times of party strife a con- 
stitution is invaluable, for whichever party is in 
control will use its position to hinder the opposition. 
Nor was there any danger of a party constitution, 
even though parties were not actually balanced, 
for reliance can be placed in the good sense of the 
people. They will see that: "It will not be an in- 
strument full of innovations, nor will it be a de- 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 257 

parture from what the experience of other states 
and of our own has proved to be useful. You 
will have no new experiments to try; all this busi- 
ness has been made intelligible in our country as 
the art of ship-building." Let all men consider 
the question and vote accordingly. Let the people 
assert themselves and provide a constitutional 
government based on their needs and the experience 
of sister states or at least themselves re-establish 
the charter of Charles II. 

The New Haven Address surcharged the air 
with the constitutional question. Newspapers 
prior to the freemen's meeting emphasized the 
arguments for or against the constitution, almost 
to the exclusion of other news. Federalists pic- 
tured the danger of change: to repeal the age- 
sanctified institutions of the fathers would be dis- 
graceful. Connecticut was the oldest republic. 
Its foundation lay in popular election. Innova- 
tion was but a plan of the Virginians to overthrow 
a last obstacle to their universal sway. The con- 
stitution was the people's, for through their elected 
Legislature they had sanctioned the Charter, which 
was royal only in name. Even the judiciary 
found supporters. In practice it was not so de- 
pendent and after all it was a dependence upon 
the people. 

On the eve of the September election, 1804, 
David Daggett anonymously replied to this Ad- 
dress in a pamphlet entitled Count the Cost.™ 

56 Address (1804), pp. 1-5, 9-13, 17-21; Trumbull, Historical Notes. 
p. 2S. 



258 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

He knew the spirit of his people, and selected his 
title and arguments accordingly. Will the change 
of government be worth the cost? The writer 
claimed that he had no desire for office, but only 
for good government, intimating that such was 
not the case with those whom he challenged. He 
dwelt at length upon the diffusion of knowledge, 
the support of religion, schools, colleges and libraries, 
the mild laws, the beneficent influence of the 
clergy, anything but the issue at hand. All of 
these would fall before the violence of party, before 
office-seeking demagogues, the dethroners of re- 
ligion and morals. This "mischievous and alarm- 
ing project" of a new constitution was a Jacobinical 
plot. Eloquently he pictured the French Revo- 
lution at its worst, suggesting that human nature 
was everywhere alike. ' 'Jacobinism" in sister states 
should cause wise men and property owners to 
hesitate. His was a strong plea to a conservative 
people. The small farmer, whose knowledge and 
outlook on life were bounded by his own stone 
fences, cowered before the warning cry of "Count 
the Cost." 

The appeal was effective. Still its tone was un- 
fortunate and hardly excusable even when judged 
according to the blindly partisan standards of the 
time. Bishop's charges were similarly over-em- 
phasized and often unkindly personal, but they 
were at least over his own signature. In palliation 
it must be recalled that the Republicans had a 
positive platform with real abuses to remedy and 
reforms to initiate, while the Federalist leaders 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 259 

were maintaining a difficult defensive. In this 
form the question was submitted to the voters. 
The party lines were so sharply drawn that when 
a freeman cast a Republican ballot he knew that 
he was voting for a written constitution and vice 
versa. 

The autumn election was interesting as a de- 
risive test of strength. The hardest fight was 
made to elect representatives, for in them lay vic- 
tory or defeat for the constitution. With a secret 
ballot, it would have been a true referendum. 
The vote was large: Hillhouse headed the Federal 
list of assistants with 12,348, and J. Bull the Re- 
publican, with 7,920. In the Assembly the ' 'Vir- 
ginians," as the Republicans were derisively termed, 
had sixty-three members, a falling-off of fifteen. 
Fairfield County, which in the spring had been 
Democratic by a fair majority, was only saved to 
the party by thirty-seven votes. New Haven 
County slipped into the Federalist column with 
Dnly a hundred and sixty-five votes to spare. 
The freemen had decided at the polls on their 
"coronation day." 56 That the Federalists were 
willing to accept the fruits of victory, was shown 
in their treatment of the five justices. ) 
{ The justices' case came as an aftermath of the 
convention at New Haven. Among those who 
joined in the declaration, that Connecticut had 
no constitution, were five justices of the peace, of 
whom Attorney William Judd was the only man 

56 For votes, Mercury, Sept. 13, Nov. 1; Coicrant, Sept. 26, Oct. 1, 
1804. 



260 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

of importance. 57 His case was aggravated, in that 
he had acted as chairman of the meeting. A 
veteran of the Revolution, he was long a magis- 
trate, and for years represented Farmington. That 
Connecticut had a constitution, was part of the 
Federalist Bible. Hence the General Assembly, 
seeing its prestige attacked, determined to punish 
the justices who alone could be reached. The 
Council declared that for justices to subscribe to 
the view that the constitution of the state was 
null and void and continue in office was highly 
improper. The matter was then taken up by the 
Assembly, which ordered them before its bar by 
a strictly partisan vote of 125 to 43. David 
Daggett and Asher Miller were instructed to look 
up the precedents. 

Daggett led in the prosecution, arraigning as a 
trumpet-call of sedition the New Haven appeal ad- 
dressed to the people instead of to the legitimate au- 
thorities. 58 The Charter of Connecticut was above 
the king and independent of England's existence. 
The Federal government simply took the crown's 
place. The General Assembly in 1776 was com- 
posed of men versed in the laws and customs, who 
were intent on perpetuating the constitution by 
passing a formal declaration to that effect. Re- 
publicans have deduced no proof that in the 
Assembly of 1786 the existence of a constitution 

57 Jabez Tomlinson and Agur Judson of Stratford, Hezekiah Good- 
rich of Chatham, and Nathaniel Wanning of Windham. 

68 Based on Church Ms.; Mercury, Nov. 15, 22, Dec. 6; C our ant, 
Dec. 19, 1804. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 261 

was questioned; yet if such was the case, it was 
done in a legal, not a seditious manner. Dag- 
gett here was guilty of cunning reasoning, even if 
he did not consciously warp the truth. He de- 
manded that the commissions of the justices should 
be revoked and committed to men who acknowl- 
edged and cherished the government of Connecticut. 

Pierrepont Edwards while conducting the defense 
was interrupted by General Hart, who observed 
that argument would be unavailing, as the majority 
had the will and power to pass the measure. On 
being called to order by Daggett, Hart intimated 
that he trusted that men might talk or at least 
think freely in the House. His mention of parties 
need cause no stir, he added, for party lines are as 
distinctly marked as county boundaries. There- 
upon, Daggett and Holmes called for his reprimand, 
which was given, the sense of the House being taken. 
The Hart affair attracted considerable attention 
as proof of Federalist tyranny and its strangle-hold 
upon the state. 

The commissions were finally revoked by a 
partisan vote of 123 to 56. A minority protest 
signed by twenty-four of the bolder Republicans 
sustained the justices, pointing out that they knew 
of no constitution, nor do thousands of our citi- 
zens. The records have been examined in vain, 
if the term means the same as in other states. A 
constitution can only be formed by the people. 
That the government was legal they did not deny. 
If the compact of 1639, the royal Charter, and the 
provisional revolutionary government, all sub- 



262 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

ject to legislative changes, were to be considered 
the constitution, then the justices were wrong. 
This would be preposterous in a republic, though 
it holds in England or on the continent.; 

Judd died shortly afterward, leaving a manu- 
script defense, which some of his friends saw 
through the press. 59 He wrote that they — 

Did not mean to declare, as has been unjustly charged 
upon us, that this state is without a government, or that 
the government of this State is an usurped government; for 
we hold that a constitution and a government are two 
distinct things. 

All states have governments, he declared, but 
few have constitutions. Blackstone might describe 
the English government as a constitution, but he 
believed with Washington that in America a con- 
stitution emanated from the people and "that no 
act or instrument deserves the name of a constitu- 
tion, unless it be adopted by this supreme power 
. . . . vested in the people." As a constitu- 
tion should define and limit the powers of govern- 
ment, it should be as far above the statutory laws 
as the laws are above the people. For years it 

59 Mercury, Nov. 29, 1804; Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, pp. 73-74. 
Ten thousand copies were printed for circulation. Simeon Baldwin 
wrote from Washington, Nov. 26, 1804, to Daggett: "You may 
depend upon it much is calculated here from that event and that ad- 
dress .... it is considered as an artful thing and we do not 
know to whom to impute it .... we know it was not Judd's 
. . . . some of it we impute to Bishop, but we do not own him 
the author of the whole, we think it more artfully and guardedly done 
than his writings usually are. Our friends here are alarmed for the 
steady habits of Connecticut. Do relieve our anxiety and let us know 
the effect." Ms. Letter, Yale University Library. 

/ 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 263 

has been doubted even by legislators whether 
Connecticut had a constitution. Recently Feder- 
alists have dug up the compact of 1639, on seeing 
that the regal Charter and statutory law would 
not satisfy the people, but overlooked the fact 
that New Haven had no share in that instrument. 
We have no constitution, he argued, as Federal- 
ists well know, with their artful cant about pious 
ancestors, the destruction of land titles, marriage 
contracts, and French Jacobinism. He then cited 
Hamilton and Montesquieu as witnesses of the 
danger of a tyranny where all powers of govern- 
ment are alike centered in one body. The Coun- 
cil's negative gave it full control over all judges 
and justices, who, to make matters worse, were 
often representatives, thus giving the Council a 
powerful influence over the Assembly. He gave 
statistics to prove that three quarters of the late 
representatives came under the Council's patron- 
age list. The election law originated in the Coun- 
cil and was enforced in town meeting by the 
magistrate. Even the Lower House, he thought, 
needed a constitution to guarantee its own rights. 
Again, if the supreme power lay in the people in 
1639, why not at the present time? There never 
could be a better time to discuss the question, 
for all was in a state of peace and prosperity. 
As a last stroke, he appealed to the sovereign 
people, if their servants should be impeached for 
addressing them upon a matter of vital, public 
interest. His arguments were telling, appealing 
in moderate language to the common sense of 



264 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

the electorate. Their effectiveness was increased 
by an appended sketch which recounted his patri- 
otic service, honest loyalty to the people and the 
harsh treatment of a malicious majority, which 
drove him sorrowing to the grave. 

Judd became a Republican martyr. His mem- 
ory was toasted and his courage extolled, along 
with the living justices. Their trial was contrasted 
with the fairness of that of Judge Chase, who was 
not prosecuted and tried by the same men. Here 
was the weightiest proof that a constitution was 
needed as a safeguard against a party bent only 
on perpetuating its power, by keeping the people 
under the yoke of a royal charter. Judd had 
fought in vain a seven-years' war against tyranny, 
it was remarked, only to succumb, still fighting 
the people's battle against the laws of the king's 
charter. The partisan character of the courts was 
demonstrated. Republicans were not wanted as 
Connecticut's magistrates. 60 

The four justices were happily vindicated by 
their constituencies, all being elected to the next 
Legislature. Federalists unable to defend their 
course laughed at the distinction between a govern- 
ment and a constitution, and cast doubts on the 
authorship of the Judd defense. They required 
no justification, for they were a governing majority. 

60 Church Ms.; National Intelligencer, articles in Mercury, Nov. 15, 
Dec. 27. The Courant, Nov. 14, found it necessary to take the National 
Intelligencer to task for its interfering interest. Cases of justices 
guilty of heinous offenses, but yet in office, were cited. Mercury, Nov. 
15, 1804. See also Mercury, May 23, 1805. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 265 

The constitutional agitation was not allowed to 
die down. "Numa," in a series of about fifteen 
articles printed in the American Mercury through 
the fall of 1804 and the following spring, thoroughly 
treated the whole question. 61 The compact of 1639 
had been pressed into service as the necessity of 
grounding the ancient government in the people 
was recognized. The limitation of this pact with 
its exclusion of New Haven, Numa demonstrated, 
even making use of Trumbull's History. He then 
sketched the history of New Haven, the blue laws 
(which Republicans liked to recall), and the grant- 
ing of the Charter by Charles II. 

In answer to his own query as to where one would 
find the constitution, the pamphleteer noted that 
there were many differences between the govern- 
ing institutions and those provided for in the 
Charter. If the Charter had been modified, the 
constitution must be a combination of Charter, 
usages and law. What is a constitution and how 
does it differ from a law? In this country it has 
a well-known signification. It is not a govern- 
ment, for countries like Turkey, Algiers and Russia 
have government enough, but no constitution. 
The mere fact that men, in order to become citizens, 
took an oath to support the constitution, he con- 
sidered no proof of their acquiescence or belief 
in the "constitution." Let the people see the 
constitution in print or make clear the mystical 
means by which the constitutional laws, customs 

61 Series commences in Mercury, Oct. 18, 1804. 



266 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

and usages may be known. Citizens sustaining such 
a reputation for intelligence must soon learn that 
there is no constitution like those of other states 
or that of the national government. A constitu- 
tion, he wrote: 

Is an instrument framed and adopted by the supreme 
power of the State (which in all popular States is the people 
themselves), defining the great principles on which society 
is formed, and in conformity to which it is to be governed, 
establishing the various departments of government and 
circumscribing by well denned and distinct limits the powers 
and functions of those departments respectively. 62 

A despotism, he stated, would evolve unless 
rulers were limited by a written constitution, 
which would enable a vigilant and intelligent 
people to know when their liberties were being 
infringed upon. Otherwise they could not guard 
against encroachments any more than a farmer 
without landmarks. The erection of courts and 
defining of suffrage qualifications he described as 
a legislative usurpation. Yet without a constitu- 
tion there could be no legal check save revolution 
as a last resort. 

The chief obstacle in the way of a constitutional 
convention, he wrote, came from the propagation 
of falsehoods by ministers, magistrates, and law- 
yers. 63 They argued that, if it is admitted that 
no constitution exists, then the government will 
be a usurpation and all deeds, contracts, writs and 
marriages since the Revolution would be illegal. 
Such was not the case in the other states which 

62 Mercury, Feb. 21, 1805. 

63 Ibid., Mar. 21, 1805. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 267 

were all temporarily without constitutions. Only 
the ignorant could be so imposed upon. If true, 
no better arguments for expediting the creation 
of a legal government could be adduced. The 
root of the whole difficulty, he diagnosed, as the 
popular, slavish awe for clergy and magistrates, 
founded not on their moral or mental superiority, 
but on the steady habits of bigotry and credulity. 
Their objection to the framing of a constitution 
in the midst of violent political factiousness, he 
swept aside, with the logical answer that the dis- 
turbance was chiefly over this very issue and could 
thus be quieted. 

The Democratic appeal to voters was skilfully 
framed. After demonstrating the weakness of 
the present system of government, it was charged 
that those who cry out against innovation were 
the first slyly to change the institutions of the 
fathers. They had limited the freedom of suffrage 
and imperiled the purity of elections. Freemen 
were warned to remember that "The Legislator 
and the Minister of Justice may be as fatal to 
liberty, as have been the Conquerors of the world; 
and the doors to the temple of freedom, as strongly 
barricaded by commissions of peace officers, as 
by the bayonets of Soldiers." 64 

A Democratic investigator found an essay by 
"Hambden" in the Middlesex Gazette, September, 
1792, which argued that Connecticut was without 
a constitution. 65 This was reprinted in the Ameri- 

**Ibid., Mar. 21, 1805. 
"Ibid., Apr. 4, 1805. 



268 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

can Mercury as proof that one was not always 
regarded as a heresiarch, who believed with Judd 
that there was no constitution. Connecticut Re- 
publicans were on the whole moderate, and less 
impassioned than one would expect. Few would 
attempt to develop the thesis that, while in struc- 
ture Connecticut was the most republican of states, 
in practice it was as little republican as Turkey. 
Yet such was the view of a neighboring journal. 66 
A pamphlet, Steady Habits Vindicated, sup- 
posedly by Daggett, appeared just prior to the 
April election. Attention was called to the ex- 
cellence of the present government. It was ancient, 
and as free a system as "can exist among fallen 
men," for the elective principle made the Assembly 
responsible. It was as plainly understood as if the 
forms were committed to writing. He feared that 
"If a long constitution, on paper, were adopted, 
many years and even an age or two might pass 
away before the common people would under- 
stand all its niceties, as well as they understand 
the plain old form under which they and their 
fathers lived." It was an economical system; 
official salaries were hardly enough for decent 
support. Daggett commented: 

It is an alarming circumstance that the men who are fore- 
most in attempts to overthrow this government are hold- 
ing offices from the executive of the United States, and are 
receiving from thence, each of them, a yearly emolument 
more than twice as great as you allow your governor. Is 
there a secret understanding between them and their em- 

**Mercury, Oct. 18, 1804. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 269 

ployers at the City of Washington? Has the destruction 
of your state government, by private agreement, been made 
a part of their offices? Why are the officers and servants 
of another government engaged, with a furious zeal, to 
subvert the institutions of this state? Why have your 
civil officers and your government been reviled and de- 
nounced in the official newspaper at the seat of the national 
government? Why has it been threatened that Connecti- 
cut shall have a constitution imposed on her by the power 
of the union? There is no wish to excite groundless sus- 
picions; but when the dearest interests of the public are 
at stake, a degree of jealousy is a virtue and should be 
awake, especially when there is an appearance of foreign 

interference and influence The class of men like 

Bishop and Alexander Wolcott, who strive to destroy the 
state, are unworthy of any trust or respect. They question 
the legality of our government comparing the people under 
it to the slaves of the South. 

Beware of men [he warned] whose desperate circum- 
stances, whose profligacy of character, whose hatred of 
the christian religion and whose inordinate ambition, render 
them turbulent, under the disguise of a flaming zeal for 
the public interest. Have all men until Bishop been too ig- 
norant not to realize that there was no constitution? .... 
You have not indeed a fine spun constitution, spread over 
abundance of paper, and consisting of divers chapters and 
sections and of numerous articles and nice definitions. 
But you have a plain simple constitution, consisting of a 
few most important articles or principles, and these are 
known to the great community as well as a farmer knows 

his land marks It was originally framed and 

adopted by the people .... more than almost any 
other government upon earth, it is the legitimate child of the 
people, who have hitherto constantly nursed it and cleaved 
to it with affectionate attachment ; and whenever the people 
(far off be the day) shall cease to give it their voluntary assent 
and support, it must instantly fall .... How foolish 
is it then to expect that your government, which by long 
use and by reason of the remarkable simplicity of its nature 
is now plain to common understanding, would become 
plainer by a new constitution, spun out into scores of nice 
articles, which even learned and honest men might under- 



270 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

stand differently, and which cunning knaves would in- 
terpret as might best suit their own ambitious purposes. 

Connecticut, he counseled, not the central govern- 
ment, protected you during the Revolution. A 
new government would seem strange; would be 
more expensive, with higher salaries and more 
offices ; would be less responsible to the people ; and 
would inevitably mean a change in the habits, 
manners and customs of the people. Daggett was 
begging the question. If this was his honest 
opinion, it was in conflict with his later views. 
For as Chief Justice he admitted that the old con- 
stitution "gave very extensive powers to the legis- 
lature, and left too much (for it left everything al- 
most) to their will." 67 

The April election of 1805 was again fought over 
the question of a constitution. The Republicans 
made telling use of the figures 162 to 14, laughing 
at the alliance of little Delaware and Connecti- 
cut, and advising freemen to stand with the major- 
ity of the nation. The Federalists appealed to 
all friends of the state government. Trumbull 
received 12,700 to Hart's 7,810 votes. Of the 
representatives, in whom was seen the true political 
barometer, one hundred and twenty-four were 
Federalists and sixty-eight Republicans. 68 The 
eastern counties were fairly evenly divided; Fair- 
field was overwhelmingly Republican; andithe Con- 

87 Stair vs. Pease, 8th Conn. RepL, p. 548; Trumbull, Historical 
Notes, p. 30. 

68 Mercury, Dec. 11, 1804; May 16, 1805; Courant, Apr. 17, May 
15, 1805. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 271 

necticut Valley counties and Litchfield were pre- 
ponderatingly conservative. Towns of wealth were 
Federalist, while the liberal towns were those in 
which dissent was a force. 

Political agitation continued during the summer. 69 
The Norwich True Republican saw an engine of 
Federalism in the banks and turnpike companies. 
The Hartford Courant hotly took issue with asser- 
tions that "the power had never been with the 
people," or that there was a union of church and 
state. Federalist praise of the unwritten British 
constitution aroused the minority almost as much 
as the recent defeat, by 126 to 66, of the Stoning- 
ton representative's resolution calling for a con- 
stitutional convention. Fourth-of-July celebra- 
tions afforded splendid opportunities for partisan 
orators. A Republican, expatiating upon the need 
of a constitution, defined organic and statutory 
law: "The one is made by the people, and for the 
government and control of the legislature, and the 
other is the off-spring of the legislature itself." 70 

89 Courant, June 19, July 17; Mercury, June 20, 1805. 

70 Yale Collection of Fourth of July Orations, III, 3. Typical 
toasts: "State of Connecticut — May she, like her sister States, form 
constitutional barriers against the exercise of inordinate power." Mer- 
cury, June 6. "The Charter of Connecticut — The gift of a king, sup- 
ported by the same cloth." Ibid., Aug. 29. "Constitution — None in 
Connecticut, may her honest citizens ere long, be strangers to a 
legislature that acts without control." Ibid., Sept. 5. "Consti- 
tution of Connecticut — Anything or nothing;" "the mere creature of 
the Legislature, — May it soon be exchanged for something which will 
secure the rights of the people." Ibid., Mar. 7. "The State of Con- 
necticut — May she soon acquire a Constitution of too much health 
and vigor to be shaken by the fevers of ambition, or the agues of 



272 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

George Stanley, in a well thought-out address, 
contributed some new ideas: "The constitution of 
this state, and her citizens have grown together. 
Each seems fitted for the other. Speculative men 
may in their closets form constitutions nicely 
balanced and proportioned; but the experience of 
others affords reason to fear, that like many curious 
inventions of modern times, they will not go." 71 
Another writer attempted to demonstrate that 
Connecticut was more democratic than other 
states, because of the frequency of elections, short 
terms of office, "the mediocrity in wealth," and a 
suffrage as liberal as that of Virginia. 72 

The September election duplicated the spring 
figures. Elizur Goodrich stood at the head of the 
list with 11,162 votes, while the Republican, Elisha 
Hyde, polled 7,852 votes. About sixty-one Re- 
publicans were elected to the Assembly. 73 ; The 
fight for and against the constitution was con- 
tinued, but less was written, and that merely a 
repetition of old arguments. Federalists accused 
the Republicans of trying through the national 
administration to silence inquiry by throttling 
the press. 

ignorance." Ibid., Sept. 15. "The State of Connecticut— By the 
united exertions of the sons of freedom, she will soon emerge from the 
darkness of Federalism, leaving the old Charter of King Charles 2nd, 
and shine forth in the light of Republicanism, with a written consti- 
tution of civil government, formed by the people." Ibid., July 25. 
"Floating to and fro on the tempestuous sea of passion, without Rud- 
der or Compass — May we soon hear of her safe arrival at Port Consti- 
tution." Ibid., July 11. 

71 Address, Aug. 8, 1805, pp. 16-17. 

™Courant, July 31, 1805. 

73 Ibid., Oct. 23; Mercury, Oct. 31, 1805. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 273 

I A political scandal was created by a letter from 
Alexander Wolcott to his appointee in Middlesex 
County. 74 It was observed: "The Federalists have 
priests and deacons, judges and justices, sheriffs 
and surveyors, with a host of corporations and 
privileged orders, to aid their elections. Let it 
be shown that plain men, without titles or hope of 
Dmces, can do better than the mercenary troops 
d( Federalism." The object was to centralize the 
party. Under the state manager there were to 
be county leaders directly responsible to and re- 
movable by the state manager. Likewise there 
were to be town, city, and district managers sub- 
ject to the county leader. A canvass was to be 
made of the various towns, so that the exact number 
Df freemen, of tax payers, of Federalists, of Republi- 
cans, and of neutrals would be known. Reports 
were to be submitted to the central leader of all 
tiinderances and undue influence at the polls, of 
political sermons, false returns and other question- 
able Federalist tricks. "A majority," the letter 
continued, "can relax its exertions occasionally 
without hazard: a minority must exercise its full 
strength constantly." Local leaders were to aid 
Republicans through the intricate process of be- 
coming freemen to scrutinize all objections, urge 
their men to the polls, note the absent and those 
not voting. A modern reader is only surprised at 
the perfection of the plan, but Federalists were 
shocked. 

7i Courant, Mar. 12, 1806. 



274 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

It was "a conspiracy, active, daring and wicked, 
in the midst of the State for the destruction of our 
Government;" it was a " Papal Bull." Wolcott, 
Bishop and General Wilcox were arrogating to 
themselves a despotic power over the freemen and 
their electoral rights. They were national office- 
holders, organizing like Jacobins to destroy their 
native commonwealth. 75 The Republican mani- 
festoes to town managers advised open electioneer- 
ing, for secrecy would only mean the temporary 
success of a stolen march. 76 Their organization 
was defended as necessary to contend against an 
organized aristocracy by which the party of nine- 
tenths of the union has long been slandered. 

The April election (1806) saw the heaviest vote 
ever cast and one not to be duplicated for some 
time. Trumbull received 13,413 votes and General 
Hart 9,460 — by far the greatest Republican poll. 
The Republicans were fortunate to have in Hart for 
the head of their ticket a military hero hallowed, 
like Kirby, by the Revolutionary legend. Wolcott's 
organization had worked efficiently. His estimate 
of the relative strength of the parties as eight to 
eleven had almost exactly anticipated the actual 
figures. No better demonstration of his ability 
as a "boss" could be demanded. The Federalists, 
on the other hand, greatly overestimated their 
strength of 20,000. Seventy-two Republicans were 
elected as representatives, six short of their high 

75 Middlesex Gazette in Courant, Mar. 19; Courant, Mar. 26, Apr. 2, 
May 26, 1806. 

76 Mercury, Mar. 20, 1806. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 275 

level of 1804. Even the city of Hartford elected 
Republican officials. 77 / 

(Republicans grieved at their failure to reach 
the farmer. They accounted for the apathy of this 
class by the observation that the farmers had little 
time for reading papers and saw few persons save 
Federalist clerics and justices, who imposed on 
their religious credulity. Recognizing their lament- 
able weakness in Litchfield County, they planned 
to carry their principles into this citadel of con- 
servatism by holding in the town of Litchfield 
what came to be known as the Sixth-of-August 
Festival. 78 

Litchfield had a riotous day. The great con- 
course of Republicans listened to a short prayer 
and a spirited address by Jonathan Law. In pro- 
cession they visited the jail where editor Selleck 
Osborne of the Litchfield Witness was incarcer- 
ated. On conviction of libel, he refused to pay 
a fine, preferring to assume the role of a martyr 
to free speech and the Jeffreys-like justice of a 

77 Election statistics in Courant, Apr. 2, 16; Mercury, Apr. 3, 1806. 
In May of this year Noah Webster received a letter from his wife in 
New Haven: "Democracy has increased sadly in this state. I fear 
Dr. Dwight was right in despairing as he did the other evening he 
passed with you." Ford, Webster, II, 3-4. Rev. William Lyman in 
the election sermon preached: "Against the wisest measures and most 
salutary laws, the enemies of order and government may .... 
unite and clamor. Such combinations of infuriated men must have 
their seasons and their cause. Though success attend their exertions 
they will not long enjoy the triumph." 

78 Mercury, Aug. 14, 21, Sept. 11, 18, 1806. A bitterly distorted 
account was printed anonymously as "The Sixth of August." Yale 
Pamphlets, Vol. 1554, No. 10. 



276 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Federalist judge and packed jury. 79 To Feder- 
alists this was a "most signal exhibition of the 
rage of democracy." An incident which resulted 
in a newspaper controversy unfortunately marred 
the celebration and hurt Democratic prospects. 
The aged Congregational minister, being of a pry- 
ing disposition, sought entrance into the hall and 
apparently was roughly jostled. Robbins described 
the whole affair as in the interests of revolution. 80 

Federalist bitterness at this invasion turned 
to exultation when, at the September election, 
Litchfield, the greatly over-represented county, 
returned thirty -nine Federalists and not a solitary 
Democrat. In the remainder of the state sixty- 
one Republicans were chosen. Jabez Fitch polled 
a few over 10,000 votes for assistant, while Matthew 
Griswold, the leading Federalist, received 13,421 
votes. A writer who styled himself "Seventy-six" 
called on all men to rejoice at the success of the 
godly party of the fathers, be they Baptists, Epis- 
copalians, Methodists, Republicans or Democrats. 81 

The year 1807 was quiet. N The vote for governor 
fell off by about four thousand, the loss being 
equally divided between both parties. In the Legis- 
lature their relative strength remained the same. 82 
Fourth of July was celebrated with unusual cor- 
diality because of the Chesapeake crisis. Strife 

79 Judge Church saw in this conviction and that of Phelps at Hart- 
ford and Lawyer Ball of Danbury, the English method of crushing 
out a revolt. 

80 Diary, I, 296. 

81 Courant, Sept. 24, Oct. 8, 29, 1806; Mercury, Oct. 30, 1806. 

82 Courant, Apr. 8; Mercrtry, Apr. 2, 9, 1807. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 277 

was again aroused by the federal prosecution of 
Rev. Azel Backus for a libelous attack upon Jef- 
ferson. As Pierrepont Edwards was the federal 
district judge and Alexander Wolcott the prosecu- 
tor, charges of partiality, did not lack color. 83 
Federalists exerted themselves in the fall lest the 
apathy of their voters might mean an opposition 
surprise. Connecticut's constancy was their glory, 
for she alone of the New England states had never 
fallen. It was recalled that Samson was lost when 
he slept. Nevertheless little enthusiasm was aroused, 
the assistants' list showing a decrease of five thous- 
and votes and the Republicans electing seventy- 
five representatives. 84 
/'The Embargo was the real issue in 1808. 85 In 

83 Courant, Sept. 30, 1807. "A Letter to the President .... 
touching the Prosecutions under his patronage before the Circuit Court" 
by Chatham (1808), supposedly Webster, charged that the marshal, 
Gen. Joseph Wilcox, packed the jury. Bills had been returned against 
Judge Reeve and Thaddeus Osgood, and Thomas Collier, a Litchfield 
printer, in 1805, and against Hudson and Goodwin of the Courant in 
1807. About this time Rev. David McClure confided to his diary: 
"Democracy in Connecticut is more of an immoral and disorganizing 
character than in other States." Dexter, Diary of Dr. David McClure, 
p. 178. 

84 Chauncey Goodrich and Jabez Fitch headed the respective lists 
with 10,185 and 7,524 votes. The Republican candidate for the Senate 
received 75 votes in the Lower House. Courant, Oct. 21; Mercury, 
Oct. 25, Nov. 5, 1807. 

85 Senator Hillhouse wrote to Webster, Mar. 22, 1808, that the Con- 
necticut delegation, united in their opposition, did not care to address 
formally their state, nor did they believe it effective. Even his letter 
was not to be made public unless that course was approved by Dwight, 
Goodrich, Baldwin and Daggett, a suggestive list. Ford, Webster, II, 
50. Letter of Timothy Pickering (Dec. 12, 1808) castigating Jefferson. 
Ibid., II, 56. Cf. Elizabeth Donnan, Papers of James A. Bayard, p. 
174, in Amer. Hist. Assoc, Report (1913), II. 



278 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

January the Courant only mildly questioned its 
efficacy, but by the April proxies its attitude had 
become rabidly antagonistic. It was the work of 
Virginians, who would destroy old New England 
and build up, at the expense of farmer and shipper, 
a manufacturing aristocracy. It would redound 
to the benefit of Canada. Men were advised to 
bury party distinctions and determine to live and 
die freemen, in order that their voice be heard at 
the ''presidential palace." Federalists appealed 
to the freemen to vote for "the Friends of Free 
Trade and the Opposers of Fatal Embargoes." 
"The doctrine of passive obedience and non-resist- 
ence" was said to have happily passed. Laborers 
out of employment, mechanics walking the streets, 
seamen lounging on the wharves and farmers 
without markets were urged to support the "Free 
Trade or Federal Ticket." 86 No logic of Bishop 
and Wolcott should deceive them, when the failure 
of business and industry was apparent on all sides. 
The Republicans were indeed hard put to defend 
the administration. 87 They granted that it was a 
harsh measure, but necessary because of the failure 

86 Courant, Jan. 6, Feb. 3, Apr. 6, May 4, 1808. Republicans charged 
that thousands of pamphlets attacking the measures were being dis- 
tributed. Mercury, Apr. 7, 1808. Webster in May wrote to Oliver 
Wolcott: "Is there no way to unite the northern or commercial interest 
of the United States against a non-commercial administration?" Ford, 
Webster, II, 36-37, 50. In August he was drafting a memorial to Jeffer- 
son. See Forrest Morgan, Connecticut as a Colony and as a State, III, 
50 ff. 

87 Mercury, Feb. 25, 1808, and following issues. The editor (July 
28) rejoiced that Connecticut was a state of farmers, not of marines and 
dippers who cannot live out of water. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 279 

of the Non- Intercourse act as the only means of 
injuring England. As such it should be borne with 
patriotic resignation. 

The April, 1808, vote was rather better than the 
Republicans expected. Trumbull received 12,146 
votes to General Hart's 7,566, the highest vote 
Republicans were to register for some time. In 
the Assembly, their number fell to sixty-one. 88 
Federalists gloried in Connecticut's stability in the 
face of seven years of revolutionary effort. Con- 
necticut was toasted as "the tight ship that lives 
out every storm;" as "Noah's ark in the deluge 
of Democracy." 89 

In the fall the general Federalist committee 
urged freemen to stand true, as presidential elec- 
tors were to be chosen and as all New England was 
returning to its first love. They cried out: 

Connecticut has a character to maintain 

While the waves of faction have roared around us, while 
the billows of democracy have beat upon us — while State 
after State has fallen, and all New England has yielded to 
the torrent, .... Connecticut alone has main- 
tained her station — unmoved alike by the numbers and 
sophisms of her enemies, she has walked on in the path 
opened by Washington and never for a moment turned 
aside to the right nor to the left. 90 

Republicans called for the support of the national 
government. Their appeal against a village majority 
was without avail. Everything went Federalist. 

**Courant, Apr. 20, May 18; Mercury, May 19, 1800. Some 1,744 
votes were cast out for an unknown reason. 

89 Courant, July 13, 29, 1808. 

90 Ibid., Sept. 14. 



280 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

The minority in the Assembly sank to fifty members. 
General Hart withdrew from the gubernatorial can- 
didacy; "resigned," as the opposition had it. New 
Haven and Meriden addressed the President on the 
Embargo, and the Legislature, by 145 to 49 votes, 
passed a resolution against it. The simple truth 
is that this vote makes clear how Jefferson's 
policy was curing the state of its Republicanism. 
Of the forty-nine, only thirty representatives were 
bold enough to subscribe to the minority report. 91 
Governor Trumbull called an extra session of 
the Legislature in February, 1809, to consider the 
Embargo, which he did not hesitate to declare 
unconstitutional. In this the Federalist majority 
agreed, for they empowered him to communicate 
with the governor of Massachusetts, stating their 
willingness to join for certain constitutional amend- 
ments. It was resolved "That to preserve the 
Union, and support the Constitution of the United 
States, it becomes the duty of the Legislatures of 
the States, in such a crisis of affairs, vigilantly to 
watch over and vigorously to maintain the powers 
not delegated to the United States, but reserved to 
the States, respectively, or to the people; and that 
a due regard to this duty will not permit this 
Assembly to assist or concur in giving effect to 
the aforesaid unconstitutional act, passed to en- 
force the Embargo." Addressing the people, the 
Legislature declared: "We forbear to express the 
imminent danger, to which we fear, not only our 

91 Mercury, Sept. 8, 22, 29, Nov. 10; Courant, Sept. 28, Oct 13, 
1808. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 281 

constitutional rights, but those of all the people 
of the United States are exposed from within and 
without. May Heaven avert the danger and pre- 
serve to us our privileges, civil and religious." 92 
A Republican protest, signed by thirty-seven repre- 
sentatives and headed by Dr. Jabez Fitch, had no 
effect save in bringing ridicule upon themselves. 

Connecticut was entering the darkest period of 
her history — one which deserves a thorough study 
as affording an early nullification precedent. 
Federalist writers were asking what steps should be 
taken, when the national government oversteps 
the constitution, and were urging state allegiance 
before national. They wondered if it was less 
criminal for Republicans, who were shocked at the 
action of the Legislature, to rise up in open oppo- 
sition and declare that the state, to which they 
had sworn allegiance, was without a constitution. 
They charged that the return from the Embargo 
to Non-Intercourse was a change from folly to 
cowardice, due to the administration's fear of 
Connecticut and Massachusetts. 93 

A Democratic meeting declared Trumbull's 
action "an enormous stride toward treason and 
civil war." To Republicans it was an invasion 
of law by "self-stiled friends of Washington, order 
government, and religion." Republicans in mass 
meetings, in dissenting churches, and in town meet- 
ings, when in a majority, hurried to pass resolu- 

92 Yale Pamphlets, Vol. 1626; Com ant, Mar. 1, 1809. 
n Courant, January and March, 1809. Lamed, Windham County, 
II, 404. 



282 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

tions pledging Madison their support. 94 William 
Bristol, a prominent Republican, wrote an essay 
severely condemning the attempt of the special 
session to distress the administration. He com- 
plained: "While foreign nations are aiming their 
destructive weapons at the vitals of our coun- 
try, instead of rallying around the Constitution 
and constituted authorities, party animosity has 
usurped the place of national feeling; the citizens 
are inflamed from one degree of animosity to 
another; and too many seem determined to push 
every measure which can distress their opponents, 
though it may at the same time pierce the vitals of 

their own country The Government 

of the United States contains, within itself, a salu- 
tary and peaceable remedy against the abuse of 
power. An Independent Judiciary, under the 
Constitution of the United States, may declare 
laws unconstitutional and void. But the chief 
resort, contrived by human wisdom to guard the 
people against their rulers, consists in freely and 
peaceably recurring to the Elective franchise. 
To the judiciary let those resort who feel the opera- 
tion of the law in question, and think it unconsti- 
tutional; but let not the citizens be seduced by 
syren songs into forcible opposition." Thus he 
sustained his thesis that the United States, not 
Connecticut, was the paramount power. 95 

Federalist success in April was regarded as 
unequivocal approval of the session. Trumbull 

94 Mercury, March, April, and May. 
K Address (1809), pp. 3, 17. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 283 

was re-elected by an unusually large majority, 
14,650 votes to 8,159, carrying Spalding's own 
town, a Democratic stronghold. Hartford, a deli- 
cate measure of Republicanism, returned Feder- 
alist representatives by the largest majority in 
years. The Republican representatives fell to 
forty-five. Rev. Samuel Nott in the election 
sermon prayed that religion would prevail and 
party spirit die down, while he predicted that the 
governor and General Assembly united would be 
able to protect the state from its enemies. Small 
wonder that Robbins wrote: "Democracy in this 
State appears hopeless;" or that Pierrepont Ed- 
wards had once exclaimed: "As well attempt to 
revolutionize the kingdom of heaven as the State 
of Connecticut." 96 

The September election brought more joy to 
Federalists. The highest Republican on the assist- 
ants' list had only 5,593 votes, a little over half 
the Federalist vote, but not a great deal more than 
half the Republican vote of three years earlier. 
It seemed that at last Jacobinism had spent its 
force. Lieutenant-Governor Treadwell felt that 
he was addressing his own, when he said, in the 
Assembly: "The Public maintenance of religion 
has ever been deemed by the most enlightened 
nations as intimately connected with the interests 
of the civil state." He was announcing the result 
of the long struggle against the state-church — 
apparently Republican failure and the triumph of 
the sound principles of Federalism. 97 

96 Diary, I, 415; Beecher, Autobiography, I, 343; Courant, May 17. 

97 Mercury, Oct. 26; Courant, Sept. 27, Oct. 18, 1809. 



284 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

The year 1810 witnessed a further decline of 
Republicanism. In vain did its orators make 
national, patriotic appeals and call their "ten 
thousand" to follow the lead of Massachusetts 
and New Hampshire. 98 National arguments failed 
where men could look upon America as "our con- 
federacy of republics." 99 Connecticut men were 
too provincial, too parochial-minded. 

In the April election Governor Tread well, who suc- 
ceeded on Trumbull's death, received 10,265 votes; 
Spalding, 7,185; and Griswold, 3,110. As no can- 
didate had a majority the choice of a governor 
devolved upon the Legislature, which named 
Treadwell. 100 Griswold and his following had 
bolted. It was a foreboding of what the following 
year was to bring forth. In the Assembly only 
forty-two Republicans could be relied upon in a 
crisis. The September results were more dis- 
couraging to Republicans. Their representatives 
increased to a doubtful sixty-four, but their high 
man on the assistants' list sank to 4,242 votes, 



98 Mercury, April issues, 1810. Robbins wrote: "It appears the 
people in Massachusetts are again to have the trial of a Democratic 
governor [Gerry]. The anger of Heaven is very heavy towards us in 
the infatuation of the people." Diary, I, 433. 

99 Courant, July 18, 25, 1810. Tudor, in his Letters, continually 
harps on Connecticut's provincialism. He believed that "Among 
all their public men, there is hardly one, with the exception of 
those who have been transplanted, who has shown a mind capable of 
extensive range, or that was not bigoted to, or fettered by local con- 
siderations." Pp. 47, 128. 

100 Courant, May 10, 16, 1810. In the Assembly Treadwell received 
121 votes; Spalding, 42; and Griswold, 29. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 285 

only slightly above the 1801 level. 101 The opposi- 
tion could not eternally keep up hope. Utterly 
discouraged, they named no official list for the 
Council until 18 15. 

The first break in the ministerial party came in 
181 1. 102 It was a fortunate schism, for an ever- 
lastingly solid Federalism must have proven a 
menace to the state. The rupture was partly 
occasioned by the anti-national, factious opposi- 
tion of Tread well. Then the long-suffering Epis- 
copalians gave up hope of gaining a position of 
equality with the Congregationalists. A vic- 
torious, national Republicanism had become esti- 
mable, hence the Episcopalians could no longer be 
constrained from entering the Republican party 
because of its lack of respectability. Their vote, 
estimated at four thousand, deserved the atten- 
tion of good politicians and won Republican 
pledges. 103 

Asa Spalding having declined the nomination, 
the Republican party declared in favor of naming 
no man, but of allowing public opinion to formu- 
late on a candidate. Governor Treadwell and Roger 
Griswold were the Federalist candidates. After 
some little delay the Republican organization de- 
termined to name Griswold, and the wealthy Epis- 

101 Courant, Sept. 28; Mercury, Oct. 18, 1810. 

102 It must have been expected, for on Trumbull's demise the As- 
sembly vote for governor stood: Treadwell, 107; Spalding, 45; and 
Griswold, 34. Seven councilors voted for Treadwell and five for 
Griswold. Mercury, Oct. 26, 1809. 

103 Mercury, May 9, 1811. 



286 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

copalian, Elijah Boardman, for lieutenant gov- 
ernor. 104 Griswold was the son of Governor Mat- 
thew Griswold and a grandson of Governor Roger 
Wolcott. He was a classical scholar, a lawyer and a 
life-long Federalist office-holder, as judge and Con- 
gressman. However, he was not a professor of 
religion, a fact which accounted for his popular- 
ity with the anticlerical element. On this ground 
alone did he stand less high with the Congre- 
gationalists than Tread well. Tread well on the 
other hand was aggressively religious. 105 Board- 
man's nomination pleased and won over the Epis- 
copalians. Republicans featured Griswold as no 
friend to the clergy and as hostile to a combina- 
tion of church and state, while Treadwell was 
described as the father of the 1801 election law, a 
Puritan of theocratic stamp, and a traitor to the 
national government. 

At the polls the ungodly element was successful. 
As Beecher phrased it: "They slung us like a 



104 Dexter, Biographical Sketches, IV, 146-149; F. C. Norton, The 
Governors of Connecticut, p. 137; D wight, Travels, IV, 143-145; death 
notice, Courant, Oct. 27, Nov. 3, 1812; Orville Piatt in New Haven 
Hist. Soc, Papers, VI, 299 ff. Boardman (1760-1823), private in 
Revolution; heavy speculator in Connecticut Land Co. and Western 
Reserve; director of Bridgeport bank; several terms in Assembly. 
Kilbourne, Sketches, pp. 237 ff.; Orcutt, Stratford, pp. 605-608. 

105 Bentley (Diary, TV, 20) described it as "rank rebellion against 
the ministerial candidate," but Treadwell, a "stiff man" and enforcer 
of the Sabbath laws, was disliked. Beecher wrote that, under the 
leadership of Daggett who controlled the Fairfield bar, the lawyers 
revolted, saying: "We have served the clergy long enough; we must 
take another man, and let them take care of themselves." Autobi- 
ography, I, 260-261. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 287 

stone from a sling." 106 Griswold, easily elected, was 
the twenty-second governor, and the first who was 
not even a man of religion, let alone being a pillar 
of church and state. 107 At first Treadwell's 
friends had hoped that Griswold would not accept 
the election at such hands. For lieutenant gov- 
ernor, none of the candidates had a majority, 
though of the two minority candidates Boardman 
had three times as many votes as John Cotton Smith. 
Yet the General Assembly selected Smith, over- 
riding the will of voters. 108 In the Assembly Re- 
publican strength remained stationary. 

Griswold 's address to the Legislature was anx- 
iously awaited. It proved, however, to be of 
studied conservatism and impartiality. He an- 
nounced his belief that, while the states through 
the amending power are in a way conservators of 
the constitution and have a right occasionally to 
examine acts of the central government, this 
should be done cautiously and with a view to 

106 "But throwing Treadwell over in 1811 broke the chain and 
divided the party; persons of third-rate ability, on our side, who wanted 
to be somebody, deserted; all the infidels in the state had long been 
leading on that side; the minor sects had swollen, and complained of 
having to get a certificate to pay their tax where they liked; our efforts 
to enforce reformation of morals by law made us unpopular; they at- 
tacked the clergy unceasingly and myself in particular, in season and 
out of season, with all sorts of misrepresentation, ridicule and abuse; 
and, finally the Episcopalians who had always been staunch Federalists 
were disappointed of an appropriation for the Bishop's fund, which they 
asked for, and went over to the Democrats. That overset us. They 
slung us like a stone from a sling." Autobiography, II, 343. 

lu7 Olmstead, Treadwell, p. 26. 

108 Based on Courant and Mercury, May- June, 1811, passim. 



288 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

national interests; and that in general state legis- 
latures should confine themselves to local matters. 
While the speech was too conservative to win 
unrestrained Democratic applause, it in no way 
augured his stand of the following year. 

There was something sad about this break with 
the past. Men felt that the old order was giving 
way; that Puritanism was loosening its hold; and 
that a new era had dawned. There was little 
rejoicing. Republicans might have been jubilant 
if they had been more confident of their man, 
but they recognized that it was Griswold's per- 
sonal victory. Griswold himself displayed no ela- 
tion over his success, nor over the break in the 
customs of his fathers. 

Local questions and political activities were for- 
gotten in 1812-1813. All interest centered in the 
War. Republicans called upon the people to lay 
aside party differences and present a united front 
to the enemy. The appeal remained unanswered, 
for sympathy with England carried the Federalists 
to treasonable extremes. 109 They celebrated allied 
victories over Napoleon, although England was 
at war with their own country, and gloried in 
the difficulties of the administration. 110 They 
officially refused the service of the state militia, as 
did their brethren in Massachusetts, for "Mr. 

109 "Count the Cost" article, Courant, Sept. 15; "Steps tending to 
the dissolution of the Union," ibid., Sept. 23; "War received with disgust 
north of Delaware," ibid., June 23, July 7, 28, 1812. Robbins, Diary, 
I, 518. 

10 Courant, June 14, 1814; Robbins, Diary, I, 578. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 289 

Madison's War." The central administration was 
compared to Nero, fiddling away while surveying 
the destruction it had brought upon the country. 
The War was said to be an electioneering move to 
perpetuate the Virginia dynasty, supported by the 
Pennsylvania United Irish because of hatred for 
England, by the West for Indian lands and army 
supplies, and by the South because of designs on 
Florida and Mexico. They saw New England under 
a western yoke — that is, the substitution of a " Clay 
and a Grundy for a Grenville and a North." 111 

Not content with refusing the President's "un- 
constitutional" call on the militia, everything 
possible was done to prevent enlistments in the 
national army. The clergy not only did nothing 
to inculcate patriotism, but expressed an anti- 
nationalism, which further embittered Republicans 
against their class. Connecticut Federalism was 
fast sinking to its Hartford Convention depths. 
It had truly become a party of "settled disaffec- 
tion." 112 

The Republicans, on finding Governor Gris- 
wold opposed to the War, attempted to remedy 

111 Morgan, Connecticut, III, 69 ff.; N lies' Register, III, 4,24; Mercury 
and Courant, Aug.-Sept., passim. 

112 Capt. Elijah Boardman was imprisoned, while under marching 
orders, because of the fife and drum noise. He was convicted and fined 
months after the war. Mercury, Nov. 8, 1814; Dec. 17, 31, 1816. Hart- 
ford, by a small majority, prohibited federal recruiting. Ibid., Feb. 
7, 1815. Under Capt. Nathaniel Terry the First Company of Gover- 
nor's Foot-Guards was decidedly hostile to the War, almost to the point 
of open conflict with a recruiting company. L. E. Hunt, Proceedings 
at Centennial of ... . Company, pp. 12, 37: Tudor, Letters, 
pp. 42-43. 



290 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

their mistake by turning to Captain Elijah 
Boardman for their gubernatorial candidate. 
Boardman, though an Episcopalian, was an ardent 
supporter of the War. His selection offered prac- 
tical evidence of the religious toleration of the 
minority party. Griswold, who stood as a Federal- 
ist, received 11,725 votes to Boardman's 1,487, 
hardly one of which came from Middlesex or Litch- 
field counties. Only thirty-six Republicans were 
elected as representatives. Republicans were 
wholly disheartened and not without cause. 

Republican disappointment in- Griswold was 
keen, for it had never been suspected that his 
nationalism was as colorless as that of Trumbull's. 
They had no way of supporting the administra- 
tion, save in town mass meetings at which war 
petitions were circulated. 113 The September elec- 
tion proved even more discouraging. Griswold 
being ill, both sessions were addressed by John 
Cotton Smith, the lieutenant governor; but there 
were only thirty-six Republican members to be 
annoyed by his survey of the War. 

The Federalist party felt the disuniting effects 
of this lawyers' bolt from the reactionary, clerical 
wing, in support of their man, Griswold. In 
order to heal the wounds, a meeting of the leading 
lawyers such as Daggett and Roger M. Sherman, 
and leading representatives of the clergy, like 
Beecher, was convened at the New Haven law 
chambers of Judge Baldwin to discuss the situa- 

113 For lists of loyal towns and meetings, Mercury, Aug. 26 et seq. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 291 

tion. Beecher stanchly supported the claims of 
John Cotton Smith, a rigid old Puritan, for governor, 
as this succession was one of the steady habits. 114 
The fact that he had been elevated by the Legisla- 
ture, not by the freemen's votes, does not appear 
to have entered into Beecher's calculations. The 
success of this caucus was seen in the united sup- 
port given John Cotton Smith. It was this forced 
harmony which enabled Federalism to maintain its 
hold some years longer, though it prevented a 
progressive movement within the party. 

John Cotton Smith was elected in 1813, with 
practically the full Federalist vote (11,893). The 
Republicans were proud of Boardman's 7,201 
votes, for it presaged a rebirth. The Federalist 
vote for lieutenant governor was divided between 
Chauncey Goodrich and Calvin Goddard, so the 
Republican, Isaac Spencer, received a plurality. 
The decision lay with the Legislature, which 
without hesitation named Goodrich, who resigned 
his seat in the Senate. In the Assembly the 

114 Beecher wrote to Rev. Asabel Hooker (November 24, 1812): 
"I am persuaded the time has come when it becomes every friend of 
this State to wake up and exert his whole influence to save it from 
innovation and democracy healed of its deadly wound .... If 
we stand idle we lose our habits and institutions piecemeal, as fast as 
innovation and ambition shall dare to urge on the work. If we meet 
with strenuous opposition [anti-Smith element] in this thing we can 
but perish, and we may — I trust if we look up to God we shall — save 
the state." He advised counseling with Theodore Dwight, complain- 
ing "Why should this little state be sacrificed? Why should she at 
such a day as this, standing alone amid surrounding ruins, be torn 
herself by internal discord? What a wanton effort of ambition." Au- 
tobiography, I, 257, 259. 



292 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

" Peace men," as the Federalists liked to label 
themselves, had a majority of 133 votes. The 
September vote was small, though the Republicans 
gained a few seats. 115 

The year 18 14 was of similar political tone. 
Opposition to the war was becoming more violent. 
Appeals to patriotism fell short, in view of the 
depressed condition of agriculture and the English 
blockade of the Sound. Federalist views so 
alarmed the freeman, that he seems to have 
shunned the war party, the "Embargaroons." 
The April vote was very light, Boardman dropping 
to 2,619 against John Cotton Smith's 9,415 votes. 
For the congressional list, the highest vote was only 
6,289 and the leading Democrat had but 104 votes. 
Still, the Federalists were worried; for with the 
freemen remaining away from the polls, a sudden 
turn might bring Republican majorities. "The 
thirteenth year of the reign of democracy" was 
indeed discouraging. 116 

The autumn campaign offered no consolation to 
nationalists, the one issue being that of hostility 
to the War. "Chatham" in The Crisis depicted 
the dangers from invasion and the failure of the 
central government. He advised the united action 
of New England, and the appointment of commis- 
sioners to arrange for some plan of defense. Let 
these states raise an army and win peace by say- 
ing to England: we will not invade your terri- 

m Courant, Apr. 27, May 18, Sept. 28, Oct. 19, 1813; Mercury, 
May 19; Niks' Register, V, 121. 

116 Courant, February-May, 1814, passim. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 293 

tory and you shall not invade ours. He suggested 
that Connecticut set an example to the traitors 
who had brought on the War, and urged the free- 
men to choose honest legislators, unless they 
desired to become slaves. Democratic appeals 
on behalf of the Union were bootless, only about 
thirty-six of their men being chosen to the Lower 
House. Disunion was the order of the day. 

Governor Smith referred to the General As- 
sembly a letter from the governor of Massachu- 
setts, inviting Connecticut to join in sending 
delegates to consider measures of safety "not 
repugnant to our obligations as members of the 
Union." The request was referred to a joint com- 
mittee. On advice of the committee, it was voted 
( x 53 to 36) to send delegates to the Hartford 
Convention. 117 Chauncey Goodrich, James Hill- 
house, John Treadwell, Zephaniah Swift, Nathaniel 
Smith, Calvin Goddard, and Roger M. Sherman 
were selected. Theodore Dwight acted as the 
Convention's secretary and later as its historian. 
Connecticut was deeply committed. Her repre- 
sentatives were among the state leaders, Federal- 
ists of deep hue, men of undoubted integrity, but 
aristocrats and rulers. 

The Convention's session of three weeks was 
clouded in secrecy. New England's attitude of hos- 
tility to the central administration, her early doubts 
as to the permanence of the Union, hatred of the 
West, and the Federalist whisperings of disunion, 

117 Courant, Sept., Nov., 1814; Niks' Register, VII, 144 ff. 



294 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

gave this New England Convention a more trai- 
torous aspect than it deserved. Republican pa- 
pers minced no words in proclaiming its treason, 
made doubly obnoxious by the presence of a 
foreign foe on American soil. Federalist writers 
did not hide their true sentiments in answering 
their opponents 118 The Connecticut Courant, aroused 
by the taunts of Matthew Carey, a naturalized 
Irishman, declared: 

We have no idea of any contest; we shall not invite it, 
we deprecate any collision with our sister states, but we 
are too well acquainted with our resources, our spirit and 
our rights to be deterred from asserting, and maintaining 
them, because some people chose to ridicule the one and 
and make light of and assail the other. 

If we only defend our rights and do not en- 
croach, the editor asked, how can there be civil 
war? 

The printed resolves of the Convention and its 
brief journal displayed a deadly hostility to the 
administration. It was admitted that there was 
difficulty in "devising means of defense against 
dangers, and of relief from oppressions proceed- 
ing from the act of their own government, without 
violating constitutional principles or disappoint- 
ing the hopes of a suffering and injured people." 
They declared in favor of some means to protect 
themselves against a national draft of their cit- 

118 Cyrus King, speech in Congress, Oct. 22, 1814, gives a good 
account of New England's attitude. Willard Phillips, "An Appeal 
to the Good Sense of Democrats and the Public Spirit of Federalists" 
(1814). Henry Adams, Hist, of U. S., IX, 287 ff. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 295 

izens, to use their militia as a state or New Eng- 
land force, and to appropriate a reasonable share 
of the national tax for the maintenance of this 
force. Amendments were suggested, requiring a 
two-thirds vote of Congress to declare war, lay 
embargoes or admit new states; asking that the 
President be limited to a single term; that succes- 
sive Presidents come from different states; that no 
foreign-born citizen be eligible to office; and that 
the South's representation be cut down by not 
counting blacks. In case of no action by the 
national government, another convention was to 
be called in the summer to consider future meas- 
ures. The commissioners sent to Washington, 
of whom Calvin Goddard and Nathaniel Terry 
represented Connecticut, wisely neglected to de- 
liver a message so discordant with the popular 
rejoicing over the peace just proclaimed. 

The Hartford Convention could not shake off 
suspicion, not even when in defense Theodore 
Dwight published its journal in 1833. 119 Con- 
necticut Federalism had been given a fatal blow, 
though its death was not immediate. John 
Quincy Adams could only account for the refrac- 
tdry conduct of Massachusetts and Connecticut 
in "the depraving and stupefying influence of 



119 Greene, Religious Liberty, pp. 452-458; Church Ms. Webster, an 

l active supporter, took a notion to study the Convention in 1835, and 

, wrote to some of the survivors, but saw the hopelessness of a defense, 

I for men would not credit its members. Ford, Webster, II, 123, 497- 

499. John Cotton Smith defended it to the end, feeling that the good 

name of its members alone should attest its character. Andrews, 

Smith, pp. 89, 95, 107; Tudor, Letters, p. 39. 



296 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

faction." 120 As a Republican pamphleteer wrote, 
it was "the foulest stain on our [Connecticut's] 
escutcheon." 121 

Republican hopes rose with peace, for it was 
expected that shipping and agriculture would 
flourish, thus freeing the war party from responsi- 
bility for the economic depression. Federalism was 
falling before national pride. It was arraigned 
by the Union at large for its provincialism, and 
charged by ardent Republicans with rampant 
treason. The Hartford Convention was so con- 
temptibly regarded that even among former sup- 
porters it was " considered synonymous with treach- 
ery and treason. 1 ' 122 Republican papers printed 
in heavy type the names of its members on every 
anniversary. The American Mercury would have 
their names inscribed on every mile-stone "with 
the finger of scorn pointing to them." Hartford, 
as "the metropolitan see of Federalism," even en- 
tertained Admiral Hotham and his officers in 
March, 1815. 123 Yet with the people at large 
"treason" was no longer popular. Republicans 
realized this and made splendid political capital 
of the fact. 

John Cotton Smith was re-elected in the spring of 
1815 by a vote of 8,176 to Boardman's 4,876; 
that is, by the lightest poll since Federalists faced 

™ Memoirs (Oct., 1819), IV, 422. 

121 Richards, Politics of Connecticut, p. 26. 

122 American Watchman in Mercury, Oct. 25, 1815. 

123 Welling, Connecticut Federalism, p. 266. See Mercury, Mar. 22, 
1817; Providence Patriot, Mar. 11, 1817. 



RISE OF THE DEMOCRA TIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY 297 

an opposition. His victory was really due to 
Boardman's Episcopacy, so it aroused premoni- 
tions of coming danger. In his address he stub- 
bornly supported past policies and painfully 
reverted to the War as precipitous and pregnant 
with evil. In September the Republicans named 
their first assistants' list since 1810. Their high 
vote of 4,493 amounted to nearly half that of the 
leading Federalist. In the Assembly they won 
fifty-seven seats. Republican organizers were 
becoming hopeful, for they believed this to be the 
full Federalist strength, and recalled that it was 
about the old maximum Republican vote of past 
years. Their problem was to reach the neutral, the 
former Republican and the fallen-away Federalist. 124 

NOTE 

Increase in the Vote and Party Life 

The vote had never been large during the whole colonial periods. 
One of the bitterest elections, that of 1767, only resulted in 8,258 votes 
for governor. Stiles, Itineraries, pp. 462-465. McKinley figures out 
that about one-twelfth of the adult males voted. Col. Records, XIV, 
491; XV, 173; McKinley, The Suffrage Franchise, p. 419. A town 
like Hamden, with 1,400 people, cast 78 votes on the ratification of 
the constitution, or 5.2 per cent. Blake, Hamden, p. 211. In New 
Haven's first city election, 1784, out of 600 men, 343 were freemen and 
only 70 per cent of them voted. Stiles, Diary, III, 120. The highest 
votes for assistants (from the Almanack and Register): 1775, 4,325; 
1794, 4,604; 1795, 2,756; 1796, 4,087; 1798, 5,513; 1799, 3,899; and 
1800, 9,625. The state's population in 1790 was 237,946, and in 1800, 
251,034. In 1784, 6,853 votes were cast for governor. Stiles, Diary, 
III, 120. In 1796 there were 7,773 votes (Courant, May 16) or 3.2 

124 Based on accounts in Courant and Mercury, Apr., May, Sept., 
•Oct., 1815, passim. 



298 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

per cent on the 1800 census. In 1798, 7,075 votes were cast or 2.8 per 
cent. In Massachusetts, Weeden figured that from 1780 to 1789 only 
about 3 per cent of the people exercised the suffrage. Economic His- 
tory, II, 865. Voting statistics are generally not obtainable, for, on 
the secret counting of the vote ballots were destroyed, and only the 
result announced. 

Party life brought out the vote. Indeed it was not long until men 
were afraid that the freemen were becoming dangerously subservient 
to party ties and appeals. As early as 1802, the American Mercury 
charged that "The Federalists appear to act from no principle but that 
of implicit obedience to their sect." Apr. 8, 1802. The National 
Intelligencer warned: "Stick to your party at all events, is a maxim 
erroneous in theory, and mischievous in practice." Feb. 3, 1803. The 
Courant took up the strain: "We must stick to our party. This senti- 
ment of false honor, or rather of blind obstinacy, has a prodigious and 
most baneful influence at the present day." Aug. 3, 1810. Dwight, 
Decisions, p. 135, pointed out to the students the dangerous tendency 
of emphasizing the party's rather than the nation's good. The North 
American Review (1817), IV, 193, in a philosophic article on the "Abuses 
of Political Discussion," said: "We have the resolute partizan, bound 
hand and foot to his old friends, and a few favorite measures monopoliz- 
ing truth, and yet shaming her spirit." This was the service political 
parties did for the early nation. Nowhere was this bringing out of 
the electorate as necessary as in Connecticut. 



CHAPTER VII 

Federal Party Organization 

| 

^TTHHE question arises: Why was the growth of 
* Republicanism so slow? How was it that 
Connecticut alone remained immune to Demo- 
cratic attacks? The only reasonable explanation 
of Federalism's continued success was the strength 
of its organization. 

It was only necessary to perfect the working 
methods of the organized body of office-holders 
who made up the nucleus of the party. 1 There 
were the state officers, the assistants, and a large 
majority of the Assembly. In every county there 
was a sheriff with his deputies. All of the state, 
county, and town judges were potential and gener- 
ally active workers. Every town had several 
justices of the peace, school directors and, in 
Federalist towns, all the town officers who were 
ready to carry on the party's work. Every parish 
had a "standing agent," whose anathemas were 
said to convince at least ten voting deacons. 
Militia officers, state's attorneys, lawyers, pro- 
fessors and school teachers were in the van of this 
"conscript army." In all, about a thousand or 
eleven hundred dependent officer-holders were 
described as the inner ring which could always be 
depended upon for their own and enough more 

1 Cf. Greene, Religious Liberty, p. 436. 

299 



300 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

votes within their control to decide an election. 2 
This was the Federalist machine. 

Such an organization was bound to be victorious. 
The early Republicans were helpless. Only when 
a similar Republican organization had been created, 
were they able to lead an effectual attack. State 
caucuses of leading Federalists were held. As time 
went on, the old custom of no printed nomination 
lists was broken. The names of assistants were 
semi-officially brought to the attention of the voters 
by newspaper ballots, signed by the chairmen of 
the state caucus. 3 This suggested list of candi- 
dates was then nominated by the Federalist voters 
without change or slip. Nominations for Congress 
came to be made in exactly the same way. Town 
caucuses were held in inns or coffee-houses just 
prior to the freemen's meetings. Here the town 
leader carried on the work assigned by the state 
chairman. His duty was to inspire the voters 
with such a dread of the outcome, if the enemy 
gained the day, that all might turn out at the polls. 
A dozen Federalist newspapers lent untold assist- 
ance by advertising the "good men," maligning 
their contumacious opponents and publishing 
blacker and ever gloomier accounts of a future 
imder triumphant Republicanism. 

In any consideration of the Federalist machine, 

2 There is especially good material in the following issues of the 
Mercury, Jan. 29, 1801, Apr. 8, 1802, Feb. 20, Mar. 20, 1806, July 4, 
Aug. 4, 1808. 

3 Elijah Hubbard and Eliphalet Terry served as state chairmen. 
Courant, Oct. 29, 1806; Mar. 23, 30, 1808; Aug. 20, 1809. Mercury, 
June 2, 1803. 



FEDERAL PARTY ORGANIZATION 301 

the Federalist complexion of Yale and the school 
system must not be overlooked. At greater 
length, the position of the lawyers and clergy will 
be discussed, for these two professions formed a 
powerful section of the party. Their influence 
was far reaching and used without hesitation. 

Yale College was recognized by Republicans as 
an important mechanism in the Federalist machine. 4 
With Dr. Dwight at its head stamping out heresy, 
religious and political, it is not surprising that this 
view gained currency. Professor Josiah Meigs 
as a Republican was no longer capable of teaching 
mathematics and philosophy. 5 Abraham Bishop 
pictured his alma mater as a pernicious "labora- 
tory of church and state," in which the students 
were taught by men who despised liberalism be- 
cause of their training, nature and interests. The 
intensely Federalist governing body, it was urged, 
did its utmost to injure a party in no way hostile 
to learning. Yale commencements were social 
occasions at which the ministers and aristocrats 
of the state met in New Haven. 6 An oration, 
naturally orthodox and Federalist in tone, was de- 
livered. It was said that a United States Senator 
and a member of the Cabinet at one time had re- 
fused to be present lest they and the national 
administration be insulted from the rostrum 7 

4 Bishop, Oration (1804), p. 22. Bishop, Proofs of a Conspiracy 
(1802), p. 48. 

5 Mercury, Aug. 1, 1805. 

6 Stiles, Diary, III, 402, 430; Mercury, Oct. 6, 1803; Sept. 23, 1807; 
Sept. 27, 1809; Sept. 12, 1811. 

7 Mercury, May 22, 1800; Oct. 6, 1803. 



302 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Yet, in spite of the stifling attempts of "the Pope 
and the holy order," Republicans rejoiced that a 
few students saw the light and daringly asserted 
themselves in a party banquet. 8 That the Re- 
publican party was opposed to the college in itself, 
was in no way apparent. Too many Republican 
leaders were themselves graduates for this to be 
the case. 

Republicans, not without cause, complained of 
the Federalist bias given to all Connecticut school- 
ing. 9 Schoolmasters were as orthodox in politics 
as in religion, or orthodox boards of examiners 
would not have passed favorably on them. Even 
the text-books were Federalist in tone, D wight's 
Geography, Webster's readers, spellers, grammars 
and dictionaries, Rev. Ezra Sampson's The 
Beauties of the Bible, and Morse's Geography; 
all incidently parried the dangers of democracy. 
Republicanism may have benefited in the end by 
many a boy's reaction from this teaching, when he 
entered upon his life work. 

Yet, after all, Republicanism could be diffused 
more readily because of the literate character of 
the electorate than might otherwise have been 
the case. Practically every native-born resident 
could write and read. 10 Social and mechanics' 

8 Mercury, July 26, 1804; Sept. 7, 1809. 

9 N iles' Register, XIII, 194; Mercury, Nov. 24, 1808. Ellen Peck, 
"Early Text-Books in Connecticut," Conn. Mag., IV, 61-72. 

10 Noah Webster grieved at the paucity of books and scholars, but 
believed that knowledge was well diffused through the laboring class. 
Ten Letters, pp. 22-26. Judge Reeve in his legal career only knew of 
one native witness who could not read. Women were generally illiter- 



FEDERAL PARTY ORGANIZATION 303 

libraries served as reading centers in many towns. 
Newspapers were plentiful, generally read and 
handed on to non-subscribers. This meant much 
to a new party. Hence the primary schooling, 
despite its objectionable characteristics, proved 
advantageous to Republican propaganda. 

As stanch upholders of the Standing Order, 
the legal profession was assailed on all sides by 
Republicans. 11 As a class, they were second only 
to the Congregational clergy in arousing hos- 
tility. Republican lawyers were few, even in- 
cluding the several individuals who might justly 
be classed as office-seekers. The vast majority 
of them were active Federalist workers, making 
for the undeniable efficiency of that party. It is 
not difficult to account for their political persuasion. 
Their reputation was that of selfish men seeking 
their own interests, which assuredly were bound 
up with the success of Federalism. Their ad- 
mission to the bar depended upon Federalist 
county courts. Then, to rise in his profession, a 
young lawyer found it advisable to be a friend of 
the clergy and a stanch supporter of the state's 
rulers, who were generally lawyers of family, of 
distinction or wealth. 

The averge attorney was apt to be a Yale 

ate, even those of social standing often making their "mark." Pease 
and Niles, Gazetteer, pp. 30-32; sTudor, Letters, p. 47; Swift, System of 
the Laws, I, 4; Church, Litchfield Centennial, p. 49; Benjamin Stark, 
"Schools of New London," New London County Historical Society, 
Proceedings, II, 123. 

11 Mercury, Feb. 27, 1806; Aug. 22, 1811. Bishop, Address (1801), 
pp. 84 ff.; Story, Life and Letters of Joseph Story, I, 95-98. 



304 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

graduate, then a student in a law office or a graduate 
of the famous Litchfield Law School, presided over 
by Judges Tapping Reeve and James Gould. 12 
In any case during the formative years of his life 
he was trained in an intensely Federalist atmosphere. 
Tapping Reeve, summoned in 1806 for seditious 
utterances, and the Law School, were as much a 
part of Connecticut Federalism as Dwight and 
Yale College. Legal interpretation was partisan, 
for case-lore was lodged in the memory or notes of 
Federalist judges. There were no American text- 
books until, to fill the need, Swift, in 1795, wrote 
A System of the Laws of the State of Connecticut, 
which incidently offered an elaborate defense of 
the government and past policies of the state. 
Ephraim Kirby, the Republican leader, com- 
menced the private publication of legal reports 
in 1789. Aside from these, Blackstone and Montes- 
quieu were the chief sources in English. 13 This 
left the young law student dependent upon auri- 
cular law, with the result that he was confirmed in 
Federalist principles and convinced that only as 

12 For an account of the school and its faculty, see: Hollister, 
Connecticut, II, 597 ff.; David Boardman, Sketches of Litchfield Bar, 
pp. 7-10; Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 233; Loomis and Calhoun, 
Judicial History, pp. 460, 537; Stokes, Memorials, II, 255-260. 

13 Kirby's volume, covering about 200 cases from 1785 to 1788, is con- 
sidered the first of its kind issued in America, though Alexander Dallas 
followed the next year with one for Pennsylvania. The reports were 
continued by Jesse Root and later by Thomas Day who in 1814 became 
the first official reporter. Loomis and Calhoun, Judicial History, pp. 
143-145; Hollister, Connecticut, II, 609; Dwight Kilbourne, The 
Bench and Bar of Litchfield County, pp. 103 ff. For lack of texts, see: 
Stiles, Diary, II, 420; Swift, System of the Laws, I, 1-5. 



FEDERAL PARTY ORGANIZATION 305 

a member of that party could he anticipate success. 
In brief, he imbibed Federalism in learning law. 
To attack the lawyer was good political capital. 
This the Republican leaders realized and this the 
student of the time must not overlook as one of the 
reasons for that party's attitude. Never had the 
lawyer been popular in Connecticut. Rev. Noah 
Atwater's advice to his son expressed the general 
opinion: "I should not wish you to study law. 
Many of the lawyers are reputable and worthy 
men and very useful in the community. But 
many temptations attend their profession." 14 That 
these temptations were not avoided was the usual 
belief. Lawyers were subject to a special tax, 
by being put in the list at fifty pounds. In 1730 
their number in the colony was limited to eleven, 
but thirty years later Stiles counted six in New 
Haven County. After the Revolution their num- 
ber increased until by 1800 nearly every town had 
at least one attorney, with a total of about two 
hundred in the state. 15 Republicans condemned 
this increase as due to the loaves and fishes rather 
than to business. They charged them with stirring 
up strife in quiet neighborhoods, in order to aug- 
ment business among a people already notorious 
for their fondness for litigation. 16 The cost, it was 

14 Yale Pamphlets (1802), Vol. 59, No. 7. 

16 Loomis and Calhoun, Judicial History, pp. 184 n\; Dwight, Deci- 
sions; Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, and The Almanack and Register, give the 
number for each town; Dwight, Travels, I, 250; subscription list for 
Swift's work. The Mercury estimated the number of lawyers at 191 
in 1803, and 299 in 1807, issues of Mar. 31, 1803; Mar. 26, 1807. 

16 Dwight, Travels, I, 250; Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 13; Stiles, 
Diary, III, 221; Robbins, Diary, I, 349; Morse, Geography, p. 158. 



306 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

pointed out, fell chiefly upon necessitous persons 
who were frequently reduced to poverty. Thus 
the poor rates were said to be indirectly raised by 
the questionable practices of the profession. 

Farmers were advised by Republicans to vote 
for men who lived by their labor rather than by 
their lungs. Until the hardy, sunburnt sons of 
industry, the equivalent of our ' 'plain people," 
stood firm against the lawyers' monopoly, taxes 
and emoluments of ofhce would continue to 
be the prey of this lawyer class. Editorials 
pointed out that the two United States Senators 
were lawyers, likewise the six Congressmen, eight 
of those in nomination for Congress, fifteen of the 
annual aspirants to the Council, the speaker and 
clerks of the Legislature, and numerous representa- 
tives. Lawyers were decried as the allies of the 
clergy, with whose assistance they were able to 
rule the General Assembly, advance their own 
interests and incidentally tighten their grip on the 
state. Federalists dodged the issue whenever pos- 
sible, for they were well aware of its strength with 
farmer and mechanic. Occasionally they retaliated 
with articles, showing that Jefferson's appointees 
were often attorneys, and that lawyers played quite 
as prominent a part under the Republican regime 
in other states. The suffrage qualification alone 
prevented the laboring element from registering 
in a decisive way their approval of the Republican 
contention. 

Dwight severely criticised these Republican 
tactics, as not merely a popular appeal, but as an 



FEDERAL PARTY ORGANIZATION 307 

attempt to win the younger unsettled lawyers. 
Ultimately the policy was successful, aided by a 
liberal use of federal patronage. At any rate the 
Toleration- Republican party was not to prove 
unkind to legal men of Republican sympathies. 

Above all other men subject to the virulence of 
Republican scribes and orators were the Congrega- 
tional clergy. To undersand the occasion for this, 
it is necessary to consider the status of the ministry. 

The Congregational clergy of Connecticut was 
the favored, privileged class of the colonial period. 17 
Their polls and estates were exempt from taxation. 
Stringent laws secured the advantages of their 
position, and assisted in augmenting the respect 
shown by their charges. They were the established 
ministers; other clergymen were but dissenting 
preachers tolerated in part, but never respected. 
It was the Congregational clergyman who controlled 
the parish school, who instructed the children of all 
faiths in religion and morals, who acted as school 
visitor and examined the fitness and morals of the 
teacher. It was the Congregational clergyman who 
prayed at the freemen's meeting and who often aided 
in conducting the vote. The Congregational clergy, 
not dissenting ministers, occupied positions of 
honor at the General Elections. Every town had 
at least one clergyman who often was the only 
college man in the vicinity, aside from a possible 
lawyer and a medical man of doubtful education. 

17 Cf. Anderson, Waterbury, I, 525; Bronson, Waterbury, pp. 315 
ff.; Porter, Historical Address (1840), p. 45. Stiles, Sermon (1783), p. 
73, and Diary, I, 54, minimize this power. 



308 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

No other professions were recognized. The greatest 
of these was the minister who might act as phy- 
sician or be called in to settle legal disputes. His 
social position was secure. He stood with the 
magistrate, the squire, and the opulent general 
merchant. To magistrate and minister was the 
hat doffed. 

The minister was called by the leading members 
of the congregation. With them he stood on the 
best of terms, thereby making his living permanent 
for all practical purposes. Long tenure increased 
his influence and power so that he often became 
a pope in his parish, his power depending upon 
his calling rather than upon his personality. He 
preached a severe Calvinism which appealed to the 
fear rather than to the reason of his hearers. He 
encouraged church-going by demanding the en- 
forcement of the Sabbath laws, and mended morals 
by an inquisitorial scrutiny. In the poorest 
parishes and in the frontier districts he was obliged 
to farm in order to eke out a living, and to practise 
also a judicious economy. Yet, generally speaking, 
his salary was relatively fair, when compared with 
the incomes of those about him, the physician, the 
magistrate, or the school teacher. His clerical 
duties consisted of two forty-five minute Sunday 
sermons, catechising the young, visiting the sick, 
attending funerals and convocations, and enter- 
taining passing company. His most arduous work 
was in connection with the collection of the dis- 
senters' tithes. Generally speaking, he did noth- 
ing for literature. President Dwight excused this 



FEDERAL PARTY ORGANIZATION 309 

on the grounds of small libraries and poor livings. 18 
On the whole his work was not onerous. In large 
towns the Congregational ministers stood in the 
first rank as social leaders, and in the small towns 
the solitary clergyman brooked no equal. 

Congregational clergymen were patriots during 
the Revolution. As such they did not dis- 
courage the persecution of the Anglican church- 
men of Tory sympathies. Hence their power was 
not weakened after the War, any more than was 
that of the aristocratic element. They stood again 
with the ruling class in a demand for the Constitu- 
tion and a strong, stable, central government. 
Later, Republicans honestly believed that the 
clergy had only aided in overthrowing the king in 
order to usurp his power. 19 

The years following the Revolution lessened the 
autocratic sway of the clergy and challenged the 
forces of reaction, in so far that there was granted a 
nominal toleration to all sects, a lay representation 
on Yale's board of directors, and a theoretical belief 
in religious freedom engendered by the Constitu- 
tion. Again, as the economic and political life 
developed, the local clergyman's influence di- 
minished. Other men were becoming educated; 
the college was becoming something more than a 
mere divinity school. Lawyers were gaining in 
influence. Yet the change in the minister's position 
was too gradual for the opponents of these steady 
habits, whose eyes could scarcely detect the prog- 
ress of the movement. 

18 Travels, IV, 309 ff. 

19 Mercury, June 27, 1805. 



310 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

David Daggett, disclosing more frankness than 
cleverness, called attention to the waning light of 
the minister in 1787: 

The minister, with two or three principal characters, 
was supreme in each town. Hence the body of the clergy, 
with a few families of distinction, between whom there was 
ever a most intimate connection, ruled the whole State. 
The loss of this happy influence of the clergy, in this coun- 
try, is deeply to be regretted, and is to be ascribed to two 
causes — the increase of knowledge, and the growth of oppo- 
sition to religion. Knowledge has induced the laity to 
think and to act for themselves, and an opposition to relig- 
ion has curtailed the power of its supporters. 20 

By the time of John Adams's election, the Con- 
gregationalist clergy had become Federalist almost 
to a man. Scarcely a deacon could be found to 
profess openly Republican sentiments. 21 This was 
a situation to be expected when it was impressed 
upon the minds of the religious that only atheists, 
immoral men, and an occasional deluded dissenter 
of no respectability could possibly be a Republican. 
To be a JefTersonian-Republican and a preacher of 
Calvinism was a unique position which gained wide 
notoriety for men who had that unusual distinction. 

Rev. Stanley Griswold, a popular preacher of 
Milford, was reported to be a follower of Jefferson. 
Of this there was no doubt when he preached at 
the Wallingford Democratic Jubilee in 1801, against 
the advice of friends who read the spirit of the 

20 Fourth of July Oration, p. 6. 

21 The case of Anson Phelps of Suffield, an ardent Republican and 
believer in the separation of church and state, was unique enough to 
deserve a notice in the obituary column. Mercury, July 12, 1804. 



FEDERAL PARTY ORGANIZATION 311 

times well enough to fear for his future. The 
sermon was widely printed and created a stir. 
Griswold was thereupon tested as to his orthodoxy 
by an inquisitorial board. In 1802 he resigned his 
pastorate, to the sorrow of many of his parishioners 
who failed to sympathize with his "persecution." 
The difficulty, it was urged, was not that he had 
meddled in politics, but that his politics were of a 
brand condemned by the clerical party. By his 
brother Republicans he was beloved as "the most 
eminent victim to clerical intolerance." His case 
was cited on all occasions. Exiled at Walpole, 
New Hampshire, he established a Democratic 
paper, The Political Observatory. He later became 
a national figure, first, as secretary of Michigan 
Territory and then as Senator from Ohio. 22 

Rev. Whitfield Cowles of Granby was dismissed 
for his Republicanism and never re-admitted by the 
Association. 23 Later he entered the Universalist 
ministry and frequently honored Republican Fourth - 
of-July celebrations as orator or preacher. A 
Reverend Mr. M'Knight, for the sake of peace, left 
Greenfield to settle in free New York. 24 It was 

22 Kilbourne, Sketches, pp. 82 ff.; Goodenough, Clergy of Litchfield 
County, pp. 22, 74; Mercury, Aug. 4, 1803; Jan. 9, 1806; June 6, 1808. 
See "Statement of the Proceedings of the Association of Litchfield 
County vs. Rev. Stanley Griswold." 

23 Mercury, July 9, 1801; Aug. 4, 1803; Robbins, Diary, I, 355, 426. 

24 Mercury, Aug. 4, 1803. Rev. Mr. Trumbull of North Haven was 
quoted as having said that he would prefer to cut off his arm than or- 
dain a Republican. A preacher named Gemmil of New Haven was 
said to have been driven from his pastorate on political grounds. Mer- 
cury, Jan. 9, 1806. Republican clergy were spoken of as that "fellow" 
or "rascal" rather than by title. 



312 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

reported that a certain divinity student had been 
refused a license because of the suspected Republi- 
canism of his father. Federalist clergy refused to 
exchange pulpits with ministers of whose orthodoxy 
they were not assured. Republican newspapers 
championed the "persecuted" and heralded their 
names, while using their cases to strike home tell- 
ing criticisms ot the politico-religious intolerance 
and bigotry of the tithed ministry. 

The election of 1800 saw the Connecticut clergy 
drawn up in solid order to prevent the election 
of Jefferson. They beat what the Republicans 
called "the political tattoo." Politics of no nega- 
tive type were openly preached from the pulpit. 
Religion was in danger: "To its rescue," became 
the cry of these crusaders. The safety of the 
Bible was jeopardized by American Jacobins. 
Prayers and sermons became phillipics against 
Frenchmen, and against Republicans who were 
known to dissent from the opinion that all French- 
men were atheists, murderers, and cannibals. 
They refused to disassociate Republicanism from 
Jacobinism. They felt that it was "as much a 
matter of conscience to avow their political as 
their theological tenets." In so doing they inter- 
mingled prayer and imprecation, religion and poli- 
tics. Jefferson now became the "man of sin," 
despite his honorary degree from Yale. He was 
described as a fanatical atheist, bent on ruining 
the church and on destroying pulpit and Bible. 25 

25 Mercury, Aug. 28, 1800; Sept. 24, 1801; Henry Adams, Hist, of 
the United States, I, 79 ff.; J. T. Austin, Life of Elbridge Gerry, II, 335 
ff.; Robinson, Jefersonian Democracy, pp. 130 ff. 



FEDERAL PARTY ORGANIZATION 313 

Chauncey Goodrich wrote: "Among all the good 
people of the State there is a horrid idea of Mr. 
Jefferson. The clergy abominate him on account 
of his atheistical creed." 26 Robbins jotted down 
in his diary a thought relative to the possibility of 
Jefferson's election: "blessed be God that all 
things are in his hands, and may he avert such an 
evil from this country, for His name's sake. I do 
not believe that the Most High will permit a howl- 
ing atheist to sit at the head of this nation." 27 
His was a representative honest fear that Jeffer- 
son's election would be an unmitigated evil. It 
explains in part the boldness of the political pulpit. 
Bentley wrote in his diary that "the political con- 
duct of the clergy is no where so insolent as in 
Connecticut." He was quite annoyed to learn 
that a Southington minister in a Thanksgiving 
sermon "Scrupled not to call the President a de- 
bauchee, an infidel and a liar." 28 Furthermore, 
this was after the election, when discretion checked 
many utterances. 

A sermon which attracted much attention was 
that of the Rev. Jonathan Bird, delivered first in 
1803. The Rev. Mr. Bird noted in an advertise- 
ment to the printed sermon that no names were 
mentioned, though, if the Democrats desired to 
fit themselves to the coat he had cut out, he would 
raise no objection. He preached as follows: 

26 George Gibbs, Memoirs of Washington and John Adams, II, 411. 

27 Diary, I, 114, 145. 

28 Diary, III, 208. See account of federal prosecution of Rev. Thad- 
deus Osgood, Mercury, Dec. 26, 1805; Apr. 23, 1806. 



314 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

When we see the restless pursuit of the world ; good order 
disregarded; laws, human and divine, trampled on; religion 
derided; and its professors made the scoff of the profane — 
When vice of every kind is rampant, its votaries applauded, 
and advantaged to lucrative and honorable station, then 
we justly fear for the safety of our civil and religious 
liberty. 29 

The veiled description touched the mark, if one 
may judge from the heated controversy which it 
aroused. Like many other sermons its Biblical 
quotations were easily interpreted. Yet the most 
ardent Federalist, if instinctively religious, must 
have revolted at the use of Scriptural quotations 
for profane purposes. 

The hostility of the Congregational clergy to- 
ward Republicans became more and more bitter. 
They saw only ruin for the country in the factional 
struggles, an attempt to bring in Jacobinism 
and French atheism, and to subvert morals. Their 
fears were no doubt honest. All Europe was suffi- 
ciently imbued with the dangers of the French 
system to enthrone reaction. The Anglican church 
feared reform for at least a generation. Is it 
strange that the Connecticut clergyman, always 
steady, became a deep reactionary? He saw his 
powerful position weakened by deism and dissent, 
and noted that deists and dissenters were as a rule 
Republicans. He noticed that respectable dis- 
senters, the Episcopalians, held aloof from Re- 
publicanism and voted for religious men. This 

29 Discourse, Apr. 11, 1803. Controversy between Rev. Richard 
Ely, from whose pulpit it was delivered, and Gen. Hart. Mercury, 
June 9, July 21, Aug. 4, 18, 1803 



FEDERAL PARTY ORGANIZATION 315 

only convinced him of the correctness of his position. 
He felt that his interest lay with the Federalist 
party, which represented the wealth, the well-born 
and the educated, and guaranteed the stability of 
the existing order, the relationship of church and 
state, the ecclesiastical tithe, the sacredness of the 
clergyman's position, the existing school system, 
and all that looked toward the security of his class. 
Under a Republican regime this favored position 
must fall before the theory of equal rights for all 
men. Yale might suffer, for an Episcopalian 
college would be chartered. 

No wonder the Congregational clergyman be- 
came an ardent partisan, with conscience and in- 
terest leading in the same direction. That con- 
scientious reasons played a part, must not be over- 
looked. Nor must the courage of the reactionary 
be deprecated, any more than the sobering in- 
fluence of conservatism. According to the Re- 
publican idea, the standing clergy saw with worldly 
eyes merely their own interests, and feared inno- 
vation for personal reasons. 

The partisan zeal of the clergy was stimulated 
by Abraham Bishop whose scholarly attainments 
the Yale authorities recognized, when they in- 
vited him to deliver the Phi Beta Kappa oration 
at the commencement of 1800. Not being in- 
terested in the planets or in classic lore, he sub- 
mitted an essay on commercial and banking sys- 
tems which, on the advice of the clergy, was re- 
fused at the last moment. A change of speakers 
was announced. Bishop thereupon delivered a 



316 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

rival address in one of the churches, which drew 
fifteen hundred auditors, including women and a 
few clergy. The erudite, official lecturer proved, 
by way of comparison, a poor drawing-card. The 
subject of Bishop's oration, 'The Extent and 
Power of Political Delusion," gave him an excel- 
lent opportunity to make a stirring political appeal 
and a vigorous attack on Federalism, the union 
of church and state, and clerical domination. 
Steady habits, he pointed out, covered oppression 
and imposture, and enabled the clergy to prevent 
the diffusion of truth and a dissolution of the estab- 
lishment. Of the three classes embarrassing reform, 
lawyers, Anglo-sympathizers, and clergy, the last 
were most blameworthy. Their cries that morals, 
science and religion were in danger, along with their 
libels on Republicans, and the "calling' 'of atheists 
in political preaching, made men irreligious. 30 The 
clergy answered with bitter recriminations. His 
course was an affront to their order, to the church, 
to the college and all that was venerated. The 
more grievous their attacks and those of Noah 
Webster and the Federalist papers, the greater 
Bishop's popularity in Republican circles became. 
Invited to deliver the oration at the Wallingford 
celebration, he attacked the clerical party with 
even more virulence. 



30 Greene, Religious Liberty, pp. 419 ff. As Bishop prided himself 
on his audience, Daggett wrote that an ourang-outang will always draw 
more spectators than a human being. Three Letters to Abraham Bishop. 
Robbins noted that he heard Bishop deliver "a very foolish and inflam- 
matory Democratic oration two hours long." Diary, I, 122. 



FEDERAL PARTY ORGANIZATION 317 

That the clergy exerted a great political influence, 
the honest Federalist did not deny. He considered 
their labors in maintaining the stability of the old 
parties as a righteous part of their calling. 31 Dr. 
Morse in his famous Geography described the clergy 
as an autocratic balance against democracy. Theo- 
dore Dwight defended the occasional preaching of 
politics as a bounden duty to thwart partisans who 
discredit ministers, decry religion, and destroy pub- 
lic worship. President Dwight admitted that there 
was such a thing as "clerical consequence," but that 
it was due to their divinely instituted office and 
their own inherent worth, for they had no power, 
only "an influence, which every sober man must 
regard as desirable in any community." 32 In a 
bitter attack on the administration and the Louis- 
iana Purchase, George W. Stanley described the 
status of Connecticut's clergy: "They hold no 
offices, they are poor, they are not active political 

31 Dwight inconsistently declared that a government by the clergy 
must be bad, but that the influence of good clergy must be good. Trav- 
els, IV, 242. The C our ant, edited by Rev. E. Sampson, "one who has 
issumed the cross, but professionally deserted his master" {Mercury, 
Sept. 13, 1804), commented: "The democratic newspapers abound 
with attacks upon the clergy — they, it seems, are to be driven from the 
exercise of a right not denied to any other citizen. , . . . Their 
:haracters entitle them to different treatment, — good men will not 
rail to resist this spirit of persecution, against a body of men so justly 
respectable for their learning, their love of genuine liberty, their virtue 
ind their extensive influence in the promotion of the best interests of 
jociety." October 29, 1806. The Middlesex Gazette grieved that the 
:lergy had suffered themselves to be driven from their duty by the im- 
pudent clamor of Bishop and Wolcott. Courant, Mar. 26, 1806. Theo- 
dore Dwight, Oration (1801), pp. 18 ff. 

32 Travels, IV, 406. 



318 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-181$ 

intriguers or electioneers. They only exert a 
quiet suffrage. They have preached against dan- 
gerous philosophy and infectious infidelity, and if, 
as the opposition maintained, this is hostile to 
republican principles, the clergy are not to be 
blamed." 33 

With the Republican national success, the clergy 
were more secret and careful in exerting their 
political influence. Democratic orators and writers, 
recalling their fears, answered that the Bible, the 
pulpit and the meeting-house still stood, and that 
true religion was as secure as under an Adams. 
The Mercury reported that "Pope Dwight" had 
issued a bill prohibiting the preaching of politics 
for the time being, as his clergy were more zealous 
than discreet: "Hereafter the political part of 
the sacerdotal functions will be performed in a less 
public but more insidious form." 34 

Republican writers remarked that political 
preaching was a thing of the past in Republican 
towns like North Haven, Stamford, Wallingford 
and Suffield. If Republicans were hostile to the 
clergy or demanded preachers of their own party, 
it was said that clergymen of Republican towns 
would have been dismissed by their congrega- 
tions. That this was not done, was evidence that 
the Republicans were willing to allow them politi- 
cal freedom. They merely asked a minister to 
obey Christian teachings, rendering to Caesar the 
things that are Caesar's and to God the things 

33 Oration (1804), p. 13. 

34 July 15, 1803. 



FEDERAL PARTY ORGANIZATION 319 

that are God's, and to confine himself to preach- 
ing the Word. This at least the men contributing 
to the clergyman's support had the right to de- 
mand. It was cynically added that, if God's 
kingdom was of this world, they should cite chap- 
ter and verse in order that men might be aware 
of the short-comings of the Episcopalians and more 
humble dissenters who failed in the full perform- 
ance of their religious duty. 35 

Partisans were partisans. Personalities were 
not spared in attacking the clerical order. "Pope 
D wight," as head of what was termed the "pres- 
byterian manufactory," was generally described 
as the head of the clerical party. 36 Ministers like 
Trumbull, Ely, Beecher and Huntington were re- 
garded as his lieutenants, to lead the well-trained 
cohorts to the election. "Eschines" wrote in 1801 : 
"in the ecclesiatical carcase of Connecticut, the 
President of Yale is the grand pabulum, and foun- 
tain head of political and religious orthodoxy." 37 
Another writer would declare him a Jesuit, if that 
order had not been suppressed. Another wrote: 
"Let the Tope' take the field at the head of the 
Black Hussars, and victory must declare on his 

35 See issues of Mercury for June 4, July 25, 1801; Apr. 22, 1802; 
Aug. 4, 1803. Cf. Governor Sullivan's advice to the historian, Bel- 
knap, an ardent Federalist. T. C. Amory, Life of James Sullivan, 
II, 56-57. 

36 Address to Fairfield Electors, printed in Mercury, Apr. 2, 1816. 

37 Mercury, Apr. 30, 1801. James Cary, in a view of the New Eng- 
land Illuminati, described D wight: "active, persevering, and un- 
daunted, he proceeds to direct all political, civil and ecclesiastical 
affairs." P. 17. See "Luther's" attack on Pope Dwight, Mercury, 
Sept. 12, 1805; July 26, Sept. 13, 1804; Aug. 1, 1805. 



320 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

side." D wight was an able politician and an ardent 
Federalist, yet charges of his indiscreet activities 
might easily have been exaggerated. Certainly 
both he and the college were innocent of the 
Toryism with which they were charged, because 
Colonel Edward Fanning, a British governor and 
Tory raider under Tryon, happened to have been 
awarded a degree. Yet this charge was reiter- 
ated. 38 To Republicans Dwight's salary of $2,000 a 
year, twice that of the governor, was in itself a scan- 
dal. Then D wight was essentially an aristocrat, 
caring little for the poor and lowly. This gave the 
demagogue an excellent opportunity. Dwight's 
aversion to universal suffrage gained for him the 
dislike of the disfranchised. On the whole, he left 
himself rather vulnerable to attack. 

The Federalist answered, in defense of the clergy, 
that those who would overthrow the institutions 
of the state knew that they must first destroy 
religion and undermine the popular reverence for 
the ministry ere they could work their ends. Aside 
from open attacks, frequent use was made of such 
expressions as "the chains of clericalism which bind 
the listless citizen;" "the drum ecclesiastical;" 
"the clergy always hand in hand with the rich and 
honorable and well-born;" "abject submission;" 
"clerical denomination;" "a fanatical veneration for 
a pampered deluding and anti-Christian priesthood 
renders the people the dupes of their cunning and 

38 M ercury, July 26, 1804, and afterwards in nearly every a' tack 
upon the college. Henry P. Johnston, Yale . ... in the 
American Revolution, p. 109. 



FEDERAL PARTY ORGANIZATION 321 

subservient to their power;" a people "enveloped 
in superstition;" aristocratic clergy and long-faced 
preachers with a holier-than-thou air. The state 
was said to be priest-ridden, with every minister 
lording it over the commoner who had decided to 
make his living other than by preaching. It was 
pointed out how they controlled the college, which 
was administered by clerical or lay Congregational- 
ists, and taught by a faculty chosen from the faith- 
ful. Ministers made of commencement their gather- 
ing, banqueting at the scholars' expense. The 
clerical control of the school system, with Senator 
Hillhouse supervising the school fund, was not 
overlooked. Men questioned why the clergy should 
be active at the polls or assemble on General Elec- 
tion Day from all parts of the state, to take a leading 
part in the ceremonies. 39 

While the excessive number of clergy was inti- 
mated, this fact was not emphasized to the extent 
that one would expect. Statistics could have been 
used to advantage in strengthening the contention 
that nowhere was the actual ratio of ministers to 
communicants higher. 40 This is not to be won- 
dered at with the ministry so revered, compara- 
tively prosperous, and with few rival professional 
opportunities. 41 

39 Note, p. 331. 

40 Rev. Eliphalet Pearson, in a sermon at Boston, Oct. 26, 1815, 
estimated one minister to every thousand of population as ideal, happy 
in his oblivion of dissenters. Courant, Mar. 5, 1816. The Mercury 
(Mar. 26, 1807) felt that 228 Congregational clergy were quite enough. 

41 Dwight denied that the clergy were forced to farm, save in the 
new settlements. Travels, IV, 436. With the disposal of parish glebe 



322 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

The political power of the clergy was contested, 
for some were charged with providing for their 
sons and sons-in-law, while supposed to be at the 
Lord's work. It was said that men could not rise 
without their support and favor, to gain which men 
must be their followers or hypocrites. Bishop 
thought that nowhere was religious hypocrisy so 
certain a stepping-stone to political position. 42 It 
was carefully noted that those in high places were 
closely associated with the ministry. Gov. John 
Cotton Smith was the son of a clergyman. Senator 
S. W. Dana was a clergyman's son, as were Chaun- 
cey Goodrich, Elizur Goodrich, Tapping Reeve, 
Thomas Day, John Trumbull and innumerable 
others. Calvin Goddard married a clergyman's 
daughter. Samuel Pitkin was a deacon. Gov. 
John Treadwell wrote tracts. Theodore Dwight, 
Enoch Perkins and Walter Edwards were described 
as under clerical control. Such a list could easily 
be extended by the local genealogist, but for cam- 
paign purposes the Republicans felt that they had 
sufficient material without extending their re- 
searches. The opposition would have found a 
much harder task in listing men of political im- 

lands after 1810, their lot became harder. Beecher feared that Gospel- 
preaching was secondary to farming in many cases. "The man," he 
said, "has become a thriving farmer, an able schoolmaster, a sagacious 
speculator, but has long since ceased to be a faithful minister of Jesus 
Christ." Sermon (1814), pp. 12 ff. Salaries averaged $500 in 1817. 
Courant, Nov. 11, 1817. Dwight knew of few under $250, and be- 
lieved $400 usual. Travels, IV, 403. Rev. Ralph Emerson received 
$700. Crissey, Norfolk, p. 157. 
42 Address (1801), p. 68. 



FEDERAL PARTY ORGANIZATION 323 

portance who were not immediate relatives of 
clergymen. They could only contend that the Re- 
publicans were new men, of little character and 
no family, but with decided official aspirations. For, 
while the Republican argument was over-stressed, 
there was sufficient basis for every charge. 
^ Rev. Lyman Beecher frankly disclosed clerical 
politics in describing the meeting in Judge Bald- 
win's office to establish a society for "the Suppres- 
sion of Vice and Promotion of Good Morals." He 
wrote : 

That was a new thing in that day for the clergy and lay- 
man to meet on the same level and co-operate .... 
The ministers had always managed things themselves, for 
in those days the ministers were all politicians. They had 
always been used to it from the beginning. On election 
day they had a festival. All the clergy used to go, walk in 
procession, smoke pipes, and drink. And, fact is when 
they got together, they would talk over who should be gov- 
ernor, and who lieutenant-governor and who in the upper 
house, and their counsels would prevail. 

He saw the failure of Federalism in the way 
David Daggett "wire-worked "Roger Griswold over 
the clerical, favorite, straight-laced Puritan, Tread- 
well. It was "rank rebellion against the minis- 
terial candidate." The lawyers said, he went on: 
"We have served the clergy long enough; we 
must take another man, and let them take care of 
themselves." 43 A better description of the clerical 

43 Autobiography, I, 259-261; see also p. 257, a letter to Rev. Asabel 
Hooker (Nov. 24, 1812), urging that all friends aid before our privi- 
leges are lost piece-meal, and that Theodore Dwight be seen. Cf. 
Beardsley, Episcopal Church, II, 160. Miss Greene well describes their 



324 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

caucus could not be demanded, nor from one who 
knew the situation better. 

Judge Samuel Church, a member of the Tolera- 
tion party, in a well-considered statement of judicial 
tone written about 1850, gave his view of the 
position of the clergy of the Standing Order prior 
to 1818: 

The whole influence of the State from the beginning had 
been confined to the Clergy of the Congregational Churches 
and their adherents. Their influence controlled the elections. 
Their annual meetings at the election season at Hartford 
were holden for this and for no other purpose. Appoint- 
ments to office were not suggested by Caucuses as at pres- 
ent, but by a mutual consultation between the Clergy and 
the party [Federalist] politicians. 44 

Beecher's Autobiography makes obvious the politi- 
cal activity of the Moral Society. This, it may be 
added, was the case with the Missionary Society, 
the Connecticut Bible Society, the New England 
Tract Society, the Domestic Missionary Society 
for Connecticut and vicinity, the Ministers' Annuity 
Society and the Charitable Society. All were "re- 
ligious institutions," but were charged with being 
politico-religious in their purposes. 45 The con- 
influence over voting: "The clergy of the establishment would get 
together and talk matters over before the elections, and the parish 
minister would endeavor to direct his people's vote according to his 
opinion of what was best for the commonwealth." Religious Liberty, 
p. 402; cf. ibid., pp. 435 ff. 

44 Church Ms. 

45 Propagation of Federalism rather than the Gospel was said to be 
their object. Mercury, July 2, 1801; Apr. 10, 1806. The Vermont 
Gazette reported: "The wolves in sheeps' clothing thrust fiorth by his 
holiness, Pope Dwight .... get few hearts and less thanks in 



FEDERAL PARTY ORGANIZATION 325 

nection between church and state was evidenced 
by every one of them. The Bible Society and 
Ministers' Annuity Society met annually at 
Hartford on Election Day. As the clergy were 
there, it proved an excellent opportunity to trans- 
act religious as well as civil business. The leaders 
in these societies were the ruling men of the state. 
Their lay trustees were Federalist bosses. No 
Republican appeared on their boards, hence Re- 
publicans must logically have been irreligious. 
Calvin Chapin and Samuel Goodrich were leading 
members of the correspondence committee of the 
Bible Society, of which John Cotton Smith, General 
Jedidiah Huntington, Henry Hudson of the Courant, 
Daniel Wadsworth, Samuel Pitkin, Chauncey Good- 
rich, Theodore D wight and John Davenport were 
among the lay directors. The Domestic Mission- 
ary Society, besides clergymen like Lyman Beecher, 
had as trustees and officers Daniel Wadsworth, 
Timothy Dwight, Jedidiah Huntington, Henry 
Hudson, Samuel Pitkin, Enoch Perkins, Andrew 
Kingsbury, Jonathan Brace and Aaron Austin. 

Vermont." "The leaders of Democracy have for a long time railed 
at our rulers, our clergy, & our college, but we did not suppose that 
they would venture publicly to denounce an institution whose object 
it is to suppress vice and immorality, or a society whose only object 
it is, without regard to sect, or nation, to place the pure work of truth 
and light into every hand within reach. Yet such is the deadly hos- 
tility of these professed friends of toleration to the religion of their 
fathers that they cannot even tolerate a society who would endeavor 
to discountenance vice and immorality much less an institution which 
would disseminate the mild principles of the Gospel of peace; and these 
seem to be the principal benefits they expect will result from a change 
of rulers in Connecticut." Courant, Mar. 19, 1816. 



326 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

The Connecticut branch of the New England Tract 
Society had a corresponding committee composed of 
Jedidiah Huntington, John Treadwell and Calvin 
Chapin. The Moral Society was under a chosen 
few: John Treadwell, ex-president; Simeon Bald- 
win, president; Tapping Reeve, Roger Sherman, 
Thomas Day, General Jedidiah Huntington, Speaker 
Sylvanus Backus, William Perkins, John Caldwell, 
and Ezra Brainerd, leaders. 46 

A glance at these names is enough. They repre- 
sented Connecticut's patricians, governors, repre- 
sentatives, councilors, and commercial leaders. 
Associated with them were powerful clergymen. 
While they worked together, as they did until 
Treadwell's fall, the party of church and state was 
supreme. A more complete interlocking of leaders 
and families would be hard to picture. This the 
Republicans recognized, and struggled against, 
long but successfully. Such an alinement could 
not last for ever. 

Up to 1815 one might write with a greater de- 
gree of truth than epigrams generally bear, that 
Connecticut's preachers were politicians, and her 
politicians preachers. With the failure of the 
Hartford Convention which Dr. Strong of Hart- 
ford opened with prayer, and the waning hopes 
of Federalism, they became more careful not to an- 
tagonize the nationalist party destined sooner or 
later to rule the state. 47 

46 Lists in Almanack and Register. 

47 Their connection with the Hartford Convention cast a deep 
cloud over the Congregational clergy. A day of prayer had been 
set aside for the success of the convention. Courant, Dec. 20, 1814. 
Baptists denied tolling their bell on that day. Ibid., Nov. 22, 1814 



FEDERAL PARTY ORGANIZATION 327 

Aside from its perfect organization, the Federalist 
party had an immense advantage in its eminent 
respectability. This indeed offered a contrast to 
the ill-repute of the opposition party. In charac- 
terizing Republicanism as immoral, irreligious, and 
lowly, they took the shrewdest way of hindering 
its success among a people so bound by convention. 
Had the Republican party been considered respect- 
able, there is reason to believe that the Episcopalians 
would not have hesitated in joining much earlier. 
Nor would the luke-warm, non-covenanted member 
of a Congregational society have been so timorous 
in adhering to the reform party. 

The charge that irreligious men were Republi- 
cans was well founded. That all Republicans were 
opposed to religion in their hostility to an establish- 
ment was false. 48 All dissenters, save Episcopalians, 
could be described as Republicans by 1803. Hence 
Republicanism was regarded as political dissent. 
Half-truths fired at high velocity had their effect. 
For the tenets of individual members rather than 
for its principles, the organization was held respon- 
sible. Calvinists were religious men who followed 
in the steps of their fathers. Hence Federalists 
who were largely Calvinists were "godly men, of 
sober, solid, and steady habits." In their number 
were to be found practically every Congregational 
minister, nearly every lawyer of repute, most phy- 
sicians, every member of the Yale faculty, and all 
leaders in business. Republicanism appealed only 

18 Note, p. 331 



328 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

to the laboring element, the lower or lower-middle 
classes, as they would be termed in the semi-En- 
glish social life of the time. Its members might 
or might not be unsteady men ; but they were poor 
and unorthodox. Dissent is seldom respectable, 
and poverty and labor were only theoretically 
honorable. 

Judge Church well described the orthodox at- 
titude toward the Democratic party: 

The real truth was as I know from my own observation 
that the Republican party in this State, from the election 
of Mr. Jefferson to the Revolution of 1817, was treated as 
a degraded party and this extended to all individuals of the 
party however worthy or respectable in fact, as the Saxons 
were treated and considered by the Normans. As the Irish 
were treated by the English Government. This was seen 
and felt by many good men among the federalists and created 
a sympathy bye and bye which operated with other causes. 49 

Republican politicians, with exceptions, were men 
of little standing in the community. They were 
described, and not without some tinge of justice, 
as lawyers of uncertain practice and dubious 
morality; as holders of federal patronage; as "mush- 
room candidates" and self-seeking demagogues 
who were deluding the ignorant vote. They were 
not of the elect, old ruling families, but new men 
rising up from the people under improving oppor- 
tunities. This too was at first disadvantageous 
to the party, because of the hereditary, bred-in-the- 
bone British feeling that leaders must be of a class 
apart and above the rank and file. Like Crom- 

" Church Ms. 



FEDERAL PARTY ORGANIZATION 329 

well's Puritan Ironsides, they desired to be led 
only by gentlemen. Republican leaders were re- 
garded as anything but gentlemen, until national 
success and the Episcopalian adhesion forced the 
admission. The stigma removed, their success was 
assured. Respectability could no longer be re- 
garded as Federalist. 

Some of the typical descriptions of Republicans 
are worthy of note. Bishop cynically depicted 
them as "poor ragged democrats" who should pray 
forgiveness from "ye well-fed, well-dressed, chariot- 
lolling, caucus-keeping, levee-revelling federalists." 50 
Lyman Beecher observed that "democracy as it 
rose, included nearly all the minor sects, besides 
the Sabbath-breakers, rum-selling, tippling folk, 
infidels, and ruff-scuff generally, and made a deadly 
set at us of the Standing Order." Jonathan Bird, 
in his sermon, drew upon St. Paul's epistle to 
Timothy in order, by inference, to picture his 
Republican fellow-citizens as selfish men, boasters, 
proud blasphemers, disobedient to parents, in- 
continent men, and truce breakers. 51 Democracy 
and debasement of manners were pleasantly linked 
together. Like a whirlwind, spinning on its little 
end and drawing all leaves, chaff, rotten wood and 
light trumpery was Jacobinical democracy. The 
Tammany tribes could only be paralleled with the 
Terrorists at their worst. One writer asked: "Are 
Connecticut Democrats better, or more virtuous 
than those in New York? If they are, the Lord 

50 Bishop, Oration (1800), pp. 45-16. 

51 Discourse, Apr. 11, 1803, especially p. 13. 



330 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

have mercy on New York." On learning that 
Virginia had retired five or six Republican Con- 
gressmen, the editor declared: "Ignorance and vice 
are losing ground." 52 Ames spoke for every parti- 
san Federalist when he wrote to Thomas Dwight, 
saying: " Democracy is a troubled spirit, fated 
never to rest, and whose dreams, if it sleeps, present 
only visions of hell." 53 Robbins could write : "This 
town is very little infested with Democrats." 54 
Disparaging remarks, personalities, insulting in- 
ferences were the order of the day. 55 It is hard to 
account for the rancor of the attacks on the part 
of sober, conservative men, even though the attitude 
of the time toward party as a faction is appreciated. 
Nor is it possible to believe leader or follower en- 
tirely honest. Both were carried away by a parti- 
san zeal which saw any course justified in striking 
down evil. 

52 Courant, Apr. 1, 1807; Nov. 14, 1810; May 15, 1811. 

53 Fisher Ames, I, 337, 
64 Diary, I, 141. 

55 A stanza from Theodore Dwight's hymn "Ye ragged throng of 
Democrats" expresses the depths to which prime Federalists would 
descend. 

"Behold a motley crew 

Comes crowding o'er the green, 
Of every shape and hue 

Complexion, form and mien, 
With deaf'ning noise, 
Drunkards and whores 
And rogues in scores 
They all rejoice." 



FEDERAL PARTY ORGANIZATION 331 

NOTE 
Republican Hostility to the Clergy 

Anticlericalism became a chief Republican plank. Every party 
organ echoed it, but none so loudly as the Mercury whose editor was 
forced to pay a $1,000 libel judgment to Rev. Dan Huntington. See 
Jan. 7, 1808; Feb. 7, 1814. Republican papers outside the state 
like the Watch Tower, Cobbett's Register, the Baltimore Sun, vied with 
the Connecticut papers in heaping abuse on the ministers of the Stand- 
ding Order. There is especially valuable material in Morse, Federalist 
Party, pp. 116-139, 220, and in Robinson, Jejjersonian Democracy, pp. 
129 ff. 

There is no better way of arriving at the Republican attitude than 
by noticing a few characteristic toasts given at their celebrations: 
"The virtuous clergy of all Christian denominations;" "The Clergy — 
May they be taught to rely on the Olive Branch of the Cross; not on 
the Sword of the Crescent;" "Those who preach for the flock, not 
for the fleece;" "Our brethren in Tripoli and Connecticut — May the 
former be freed from Pirates and the latter from Priest-craft;" "The 
Clergy of all Denominations — the Bible their constitution, their politics 
religion;" "Give the people more Bibles, and let them buy their own 
pamphlets;" "The Pulpit for the priest not for the politician." Mer- 
cury, July 9, 1801; July 15, 22, 1802; July 25, Sept. 5, 1805; July 30, 
1807; Mar. 16, 1809. 

Republicans invariably denied the charge of atheism while boasting 
their hatred of an establishment. The following are typical toasts 
expressive of this attitude : " Religion — May the noble institution never 
be debased to the vile purpose of enslaving mankind;" "Genuine 
Christianity — May its ministers remember that their kingdom is not 
of this world;" "Religion — We love it in its purity, but not as an engine 
of political delusion;" "Federal Religion and Peter Pindar's Razors — 
All cheap, made to sell;" "Religion — That which inculcates virtue and 
morality; not the political religion, which inculcates sedition against 
the Government of our Country;" "Federal Religion — May it soon 
become Christian;" "Church and State united — The corner stone on 
which Satan builds his fabric of infidelity." With this they guaran- 
teed the clergy their support as soon as religious men divorced them- 
selves from politics. Mercury, July 9, Aug. 27, 1801; July 4, 1802; 
July 4, Aug. 4, 1803; July 19, 1804; Mar. 4, 1805, etc. 



CHAPTER VIII 
Success of the Reform Party 

A REPUBLICAN-EPISCOPALIAN meeting of 
*~* citizens from various parts of the state was 
held at New Haven on February 21, 1816. 1 The 
intention was to establish the party of opposition 
on a basis which would conciliate the various fac- 
tions, and bridge over denominational intolerance. 
Elijah Boardman withdrew his name in favor of 
Oliver Wolcott and Jonathan Ingersoll, who were 
unanimously selected to run respectively for gover- 
nor and lieutenant governor. The ticket soon was 
labeled the American Ticket or the American 
Toleration and Reform Ticket. 2 American in this 
instance signified no nativist bigotry, but was used 
to describe the national spirit of the party. 

The choice of Oliver Wolcott was a surprise. 
Yet it was proof that Republicanism had fused 
into the broader American party. As the son and 
grandson of a governor, and brother-in-law of 
Chauncey Goodrich, he represented the "best 
blood" of the state. After graduating from Yale 
in 1778, he prepared for the bar at the Litchfield 
Law School. During the Revolution he served 
as a minute-man, but refused a continental com- 
mission. A firm Federalist, friend of Washington, 
Jay, Ellsworth, Cabot and others high in that 

1 Mercury, Feb. 27; Hartford Times, Feb. 25; Courant, Apr. 2, 1816. 

2 Mercury, Mar. 5; Courant, Mar. 26, 1816. 

332 



SUCCESS OF THE REFORM PARTY 333 

party, he was appointed Comptroller of the Cur- 
rency at the suggestion of Hamilton. While Secre- 
tary of the Treasury he was subjected to furious 
Republican attacks, even being charged with burn- 
ing the Treasury Building to conceal his misappro- 
priation of the public moneys. A House committee 
of investigation reported their inability to obtain 
evidence. Democrats failed to credit Wolcott's de- 
fense pamphlet. The political charges were prob- 
ably unfounded, for on returning from office in 
1800 he was said to be poor. 3 Wolcott was be- 
lieved to have refused the presidency of the United 
States Bank. John Adams, whose renomination 
he had opposed, named him Judge of the United 
States Circuit Court for Connecticut, Vermont 
and New York. On the repeal of the Judiciary 
Act, he engaged in a mercantile business in New 
York. In 1803 he became president of the new 
Merchants' Bank. In 18 12 he put his whole 
capital into the newly established Bank of America, 
of which he was elected president. Two years later 
he resigned because of his political differences with 
the directorate. His next venture was as an in- 
corporator, with his brother Frederick, 4 of the 
Wolcottville manufacturing concern. In 181 5 he 
returned to make his home in Litchfield. From 
then until the time of his nomination for governor, 

3 Mercury, Feb. 5, 25, 1801; Sept. 9, 1802; Aurora, Feb. 13, 1801 5 
Kilbourne, Sketches, pp. 35-36. See Wolcott, "An Address to the 
People of the United States" (1802). 

4 Graduate of Yale, 1786; judge of probate in Litchfield County; 
councilor, 1810-1819; then in state senate. Kilbourne, Sketches, pp. 
132-135. 



334 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

he gave his whole attention to fostering manu- 
factures and agriculture. 

His enthusiastic support of the war caused a 
breach with his former political associates, 5 and 
won Republican praise. At the time of his nomi- 
nation, the American Mercury, once foremost among 
his detractors, lauded him as a man of honor and 
integrity whose whole career would bear the 
keenest scrutiny. 6 In matters religious he was 
tolerant, for experience had counteracted the 
effects of his early training. His orthodoxy was 
dubious, happily so for his political hopes. As a 
manufacturer he appealed to the class whose 
capital was invested in industry. As a gentleman 
agriculturist he gained the farmers' good-will. 
He was a scholar of a poetic turn and a friend of 
Yale. Wolcott might be a political apostate, 7 
yet he was moderately conservative. He was a 
compromise between the old order and the new; 
an ideal man to work out the state's transition. 8 

Judge Jonathan Ingersoll, a New Haven lawyer 
of lucrative practice, was a fortunate choice for 
second place. 9 Not a word could be breathed 

5 His support had been active, addressing war meetings and the like. 
Mercury, Aug. 23, 1814; Mar. 26, 1816. 

6 Ibid., Mar. 19, July 9, 1816; Feb. 11, Mar. 25, 1817; New Haven 
Register, Feb. 11, 1817. 

7 Courani, Apr. 2, 1816. 

8 Additional biographical data may be found in Dexter, Biographical 
Sketches, IV, 82 ff.; Stokes, Memorials, II, 189 ff.; Kilbourne, Sketches, 
pp. 24 ff.; Norton, Governors, pp. 149-157; campaign sketches, Mercury, 
Mar. 26, 1816, and Courant, Mar. 18, Apr. 1, 1817; Fisher, Silliman, 
I, 197; Gibbs, Memoirs, I, 11. 

9 Biographical material in Trumbull, Historical Notes, pp. 37-38; 
campaign sketches in Mercury, Mar. 26, Apr. 2, 16, 1816. 



SUCCESS OF THE REFORM PARTY 335 

against his character; Federalists did not even 
attempt it. They regarded him as one of them- 
selves, who could not be endorsed lest it shatter 
the party organization. They pointed to his pre- 
vious offices as evidence of their tolerance. How- 
ever, his selection for assistant Stiles assigned to 
a combination of deists, sectaries and Episco- 
palians. 10 Republicans claimed their vote had 
elected him over Griswold 11 to the supreme court. 
A prominent Episcopalian, senior trustee of the 
Bishop's Fund, he was expected to bring the dis- 
satisfied Episcopalians into the reorganized party. 
Republicans charged the Federalists with opposi- 
tion to him because of his creed, but the Courant edi- 
torially asserted that surely this could have no 
effect on the freemen's decision. 12 

Smith, by virtue of the steady habit of renomi- 
nation, was again candidate for governor. In a 
coquettish way, the Courant half guiltily offered 
for second place the name of Calvin Goddard. 
It was still hard for Federalists candidly to an- 
nounce a ballot, because of the old steady pretense 
that only the freemen should nominate. 13 

Like Smith, Goddard was of the old school. 14 
A graduate of Dartmouth, he studied law and prac- 
ticed at Plainfield and Norwich. From 1795 to 
1 80 1 he represented Plainfield in the Legislature at 
least eight times. Twice he served as speaker. 

10 Diary, III, 546. 

11 Mercury, Apr. 16, 1816. 

12 Courant, Mar. 26, Apr. 2 1816. 

13 Ibid., Mar. 4, 1816. 

14 Gilman, Norwich, pp. 116-117; Mercury, Mar. 12, 19, 26, 1816. 



336 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

From 1801 to 1805 he served his district in Con- 
gress. Later he won a place on the Council, which 
he resigned in 181 5 to become a judge of the su- 
preme court and superior court of errors. While 
an assistant he also acted as state's attorney for 
New London County, and as mayor of Norwich. 
Membership in the Hartford Convention was his 
only vulnerable spot. However, he represented the 
office-holding class, serving as a personal illustration 
of plural office-holding, the correlation of the de- 
partments and of a dependent judiciary. A wealthy 
manufacturer, he was regarded as one who could 
appeal to the shipping and manufacturing interests 
just as John Cotton Smith would to the agricultural. 

Party principles were fairly definitely stated in 
1 81 6. They were essentially local rather than 
national. The issues were determined by the 
opposition with a view to draw together the vari- 
ous factions making up the Toleration party. 15 

Their cry was for ecclesiastical reform. The 
national administration did not need Connecticut's 
support, hence its merits were not stressed. Men 
were advised to look toward their own hearths 
and altars. Let them inquire if all denominations 
were equal ; or if one denomination had not usurped 
control over others, questioned their ministry and 
oppressed their members. Were equal advantages 
given in the college and schools? Whose minis- 
ters preached election sermons and received all 
honors? Episcopal clergymen, and once even a 
Baptist elder, had been invited to pray with the 

16 Mercury, Mar. 5, 12, 19, 26, Apr. 2, 1816. 



SUCCESS OF THE REFORM PARTY 337 

Assembly, but never to preach. Are Episcopalians 
to be placated by merely making Good Friday the 
fast day? Are not the Charitable, Bible and 
Moral Societies, under the protection of Judge 
Reeve, John Cotton Smith, and Treadwell, politi- 
cal supporters of the establishment? The present 
laws "have a strong tendency to produce an un- 
natural and adulterous connection between church 
and state." Their change will be deplored, as in 
the case of the Ephesians, by those financially 
interested. Yet it was observed that this "would 
tend to remove that puritanic cant in our con- 
versation, and that hypocritical deceit in our con- 
duct, which render us a bye-word in our neighbor- 
ing states, and which are said to give us a resem- 
blance to the soldiers of Oliver Cromwell . . . 
would destroy that violent struggle between the 
desire to appear pious and the desire to obtain a 
good bargain." 16 

Tolerationists denied any hostility to religion or 
any desire to interfere with the rights of conscience. 
In their opposition tn an establishment lay the 
chief difference between them and the Federalists, 
who made this a cardinal principle. The Toleration 
party did not allow the force of their position to be 
lost in statement, though on the whole it was a 
fair summary of actual grievances. Federalists 
could not refute the charge. Their denial was 
ineffective, for, in the words of the Connecticut 

16 Mercury, Mar. 5, 1816. The New Haven Register said : "If episco- 
pacy was the road to power, the episcopal churches would be crowded." 
In Mercury, Mar. 26. 



338 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

countryman, the majority " 'lowed there must be 
some fire where there was so much smoke/' 

The question of a new constitution was not 
overlooked. A list of governmental reforms was 
advocated. Among those stressed were: the 
method of electing councilors and congressmen; 
the non-representative character of presidential 
electors; an antiquated system of taxation which 
weighed heavily on the poor; militia exceptions; 
the expediency of creating money corporations; 
and especially the suffrage requirements. The 
secrecy of the Legislature, with its debates un- 
published, save occasionally in abstract, was com- 
plained of because it made investigation so diffi- 
cult. This listing of reforms was found to be less 
terrifying to the freeman than a call for a con- 
vention. Charges of corruption were made. At 
the last moment, as an electioneering move, an 
account of Federalist maladministration to the 
extent of $50,000 was widely published. 

The Federalist platform was negative. Federal- 
ist writers were busy with denials. They were 
chagrined at the defection of the Episcopalians, 
who were being deceived by Republican promises 
to combine with men irreligious at heart. They 
pointed to the extravagance of the national admin- 
istration — war, loans, taxes, debts and high sal- 
aries — asking if Democrats would conserve the 
school-fund. All men were counseled to uphold 
the holy institutions of their fathers by voting the 
"Connecticut Ticket." 17 

17 Courant, Mar. 26, Apr. 2, 1816. 



SUCCESS OF THE REFORM PARTY 339 

The campaign was aggressively waged. The 
Tolerationists made use of town committees to 
enroll freemen and bring them to the polls. Rich 
and poor, townsmen and countrymen were asked 
to try "the Long Pull, the Strong Pull and the 
Pull Together" for Wolcott and Ingersoll and 
Toleration. Federalists depended upon their 
secret, invisible machine of office-holders and 
settled ministers. 

Smith was elected, with 11,386 votes as com- 
pared to Wolcott's 10,170. Goddard ran behind 
his party with only 8,635 votes to Ingersoll's 
10, 494. 18 The Hartford Convention had proven 
his downfall, as it did that of other delegates in 
their states. 19 Otherwise, Ingersoll's creed would 
have meant his defeat. Sundry circumstances af- 
ord an interesting study Close scrutiny of the 
eight counties of Connecticut will demonstrate 
beyond peradventure that sectarian towns were 
Tolerationist strongholds. Fairfield County voted 
for Toleration by over two to one. New Lon- 
don did about as well. Even in Litchfield 
the minority was a large one. New Haven and 
Middlesex, while giving Smith majorities, turned 
in favor of Ingersoll. Tolland was fairly evenly 
divided, while Windham remained Federalist by 

18 Ibid., May 14, 1816; Niks' Register, X, 128, 195. 

19 "New York Federalists used as an argument for the election of 
Rufus King, that he was not a member of the Hartford Convention." 
Mercury, May 28, 1816. The Vermont American, in connection with 
the defeat of the "Conventionists," asked: "Where is the blustering, 
menacing, the insolent, and ultimately the creeping and recreant Hart- 
ford Convention?" In Mercury, May 21, 1816. 



340 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

a heavy majority. The large towns and the ship- 
ping centers were with the new party. The Epis- 
copalians, as Rev. Thomas Robbins feared, had 
indeed made "trouble in the state." 20 

In the Legislature the Tolerationists made a 
good showing, electing about eighty-five represen- 
tatives, seven more than the Republican maxi- 
mum. 21 The city of Hartford for the first time 
failed to return Federalists. This proved true 
after it had been predicted that Jeffersonian 
Democracy, the legitimate daughter of French 
Democracy, might linger a few years, but — 
fatally sick — would follow its mother to an early 
grave. Federalists accounted for the result only 
in sectarian, factious bigotry and the slavish dis- 
cipline of Democrats to their political hierarchy. 
Rev. Abel Flint begged the legislators to rise 
above party and consider themselves God's agents 
to restrain the wicked and preserve unimpaired 
"those civil and religious institutions for which 
the state is so long and justly celebrated." 22 

The campaign charge of legislative corruption 
resulted in a minor reform. The Council blocked 
the publication of semi-annual financial reports, 
by means of which Tolerationists hoped to show 
financial deficits, despite the fiscal talent of the 
Treasurer, Kingsbury. However, transcripts were 

20 Diary, I, 664. See Courant, Apr. 2, 1816; Rev. Dr. Shelton, Mem- 
oir of Rev. Philo Shelton of Fairfield, in Sprague, Annals of American 
Pulpit, V, 351. 

21 Mercury, Apr. 16; Courant, Jan. 23, Apr. 16, 1816; Robbins, 
Diary, I, 664. 

22 Courant, Apr. 30. 



SUCCESS OF THE REFORM PARTY 341 

allowed to be made and printed under certain 
regulations. 23 Apparently in the past the budget 
had been kept " a profound secret from the public." 
Thus a wedge was driven into the autocratic 
secrecy with which the people's money was handled. 

An organized campaign against the Council was 
inaugurated in the summer of 1816. The Tolera- 
tion party, assured of success in the state offices 
and in the Legislature, made a determined assault 
on the Council, which had long been regarded as 
the keystone of the Federalist system and the bul- 
wark of reaction. It was in especially bad grace 
because of the refusal in May to publish the 
comptroller's accounts and the veto of a bill pro- 
viding for a two-year issue of bank paper, to the 
amount of one-third the bank's capital, in order to 
relieve the lack of circulating medium. 24 

A series of articles by "Cato" reviewed the 
Council's history. 25 He proposed to consider if 
seven superannuated men should rule the state, 
negativing the bills of the people's representatives. 
Yet he felt: 

That for years past, and more especially at the present 
time| the will of the Council has been and is the supreme 
law of the state, [and] no one, who has the least acquaint- 
ance with that species of ministerial policy and management 
by which the state is governed, will pretend to deny. 

The difficulty of investigating the source of its 
powers was insuperable, for they were based not 

23 Mercury, May 28, June 4, 1816. 

24 Mercury, June 18, 1816. 

25 Ibid., July 30, Aug. 6, 13, 20, 1816. 



342 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

upon the Charter, but upon the implied assent of 
the people. Custom gave no preference to either 
House, even in money bills. Yet their powers 
were by no means co-equal. Like the British 
Lords, the assistants were best suited to a royal 
foundation. They were restrained only by pru- 
dential considerations. Their tenure was secure; 
unlike judges, they could not even be impeached. 
They were responsible for the militia controversy 
and largely for the Hartford Convention. Cato 
recalled the half -forgotten desire for a written con- 
stitution as the only means of denning the Coun- 
cil's position. He saw no difficulty in drafting a 
constitution in a country having no legally recog- 
nized classes. 

The question of religious toleration still re- 
mained the central issue. The opposition party 
described itself as a union of all parties and all 
sects, who detested political Congregationalism 
and who believed that even dissenters should 
receive equal privileges and a fair share of offices. 26 
Federalists described Republican-Episcopalians 
as certificate-Episcopalians of no influence. Again, 
they appealed to the friends of Washington to 
protect the legacies of the fathers. 

Toleration politicians played a shrewd game in 
the September elections. 27 In order to break the 

26 New Haven Register, quoted in Mercury, Aug. 27, 1816. See 
Courant, Aug. 20. "The government is and has been for a long time 
a combination of men of one sect in politics and one sect in religion, 
firmly bent on their own promotion and relying on the union of Church 
and State to bear down all opposition." Mercury, Sept. 10, 1816. 

27 Albany Advertiser, quoted in Courant, June 18, 1816; Mercury, 
Sept. 10, Oct. 22, 1816. 



SUCCESS OF THE REFORM PARTY 343 

Federalist hold on Congress, they supported the 
last candidates on the Federalist list, one of whom 
at least, Charles Denison, was an Episcopalian. 
In this way five new men were elected to Congress, 
only two being returned. As the newly elected men 
were only nominal Federalists, it meant really a 
Toleration victory. In the case of the assistants, 
both parties had official lists, with the Episcopalians, 
Asa Chapman and Dr. Johnson, on both lists. 
That they drew the churchmen's vote was attested 
by their leading the list with 12,498 and 13,149 
votes respectively, whereas Sherman received only 
9,377, and the Republican, Tomlinson, won the 
twentieth place with 7,686 votes. Tolerationists 
could claim that three of their men were nominated. 

The contest for representatives was keen. Hart- 
ford cast 804 votes, by rounding up over a hun- 
dred new freemen or negligent voters through the 
efforts of ward leaders. Federalists were returned as 
of old. This rounding-up of voters was so success- 
ful that similar steps were taken by both parties 
in other towns. 28 In the Assembly Tolerationists 
numbered about eighty-seven to one hundred and 
fourteen Federalists. This session selected presi- 
dential electors, Ingersoll being successful, but 
Wolcott failing with only eighty-eight votes. His 
vote offered a practical test of the party's strength. 29 

That the Federalists were worried, their con- 
ciliatory policy in the October session amply 
demonstrated. In no other way can one account 

™Courant, Sept. 17, Dec. 17, 1816; Mercury, Sept. 24, 1816. 
29 Mercury, Nov. 5, 1816. 



344 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

for the passage of the Bonus Act than as a political 
move to conciliate the disgruntled dissenter. This 
was "An Act for the support of Literature and 
Religion," appropriating the sum of $14,500 due 
from the national government for disbursements 
made for military defense in the late war. 30 It 
provided that one-third should be distributed 
among the Congregational societies in proportion 
to their tax lists ; one-seventh to the trustees of the 
Bishop's Fund ; an eighth to the Baptists, through 
a committee of trustees named by the Legislature; 
a twelfth to Methodist trustees similarly appointed ; 
a seventh to Yale College; and the remainder, of 
about a sixth, to remain in the treasury. It was 
a compromise act in the guise of religious philan- 
thropy. Federalist leaders hoped to win back 
the Episcopalians with this donation to the Bish- 
op's Fund in lieu of their share of the Phoenix 
Bank bonus, out of which they believed themselves 
defrauded. The college could not fail to be satis- 
fied, after having received the largess of $20,000 
from the Phoenix fund. The donation to the 
minor sects could not have been expected to do 
more than placate them and incidentally to dem- 
onstrate the fairness and broad toleration of the 
rulers. Compromises seldom satisfy, and the 
Bonus Act proved no exception. 

No group was pleased. Even the Congre- 

30 Public Laws (1808-1819), p. 279; Trumbull, Historical Notes, p. 36; 
Hollister, Connecticut, II, 515; Beardsley, Episcopal Church, II, 123, 
161; Courant, Apr. 1, 1817. It was described as "An act to encourage 
Episcopalians to vote for us — to increase the salaries of the faculties 
of Yale College, etc." Mercury, Mar. 4, 1817. 



SUCCESS OF THE REFORM PARTY 345 

gationalists felt that they had not received their 
full share. To be officially rated, as if they 
amounted to only a third of the population, was 
not flattering. The Episcopalians were not to be 
so easily conciliated, for they did not regard this 
grant as fairly apportioned or as a restitution for 
the failure of their bonus. Federalism could not 
satisfy them, for the new party was too willing to 
further their interests. Yet they did not fail to 
accept their share, which was invested in gilt-edged 
bank stock. 31 Baptists and Methodists voiced 
dissatisfaction in harsh protests. 32 They believed 
that the Legislature had violated decorum in 
appointing their trustees, some of whom refused 
to serve. They rated themselves as more numer- 
ous than the Episcopalians, who shared largely 
in Federalist good-will. To accept their quotas 
would be inconsistent with professions of no state 
aid for religion, no forced contributions for Gospel 
support. The Baptists, Methodists and Episco- 
palians of Andover united in protest against the 
political trickery of the act. The Goshen Metho- 
dists resolved that they desired no state aid from 
those who considered them wandering lunatics. 
Burlington Methodists refused it as an insulting 
bribe; the Baptists of Groton and New Haven 
objected to such aid. Preston and Danbury pro- 
tested in town meetings. 

At first both Methodists and Baptists disdain- 
fully refused the donation, but the conflict between 

31 Hart, Episcopal Bank, pp. 4, 5, 11. 

32 Courant, Jan. 21, 1817; Mercury, Nov. 12, 19, Dec. 24, 1816; Jan. 
7, 21, Mar. 11, 25, 1817; Greene, Religious Liberty, pp. 468 ff. 



346 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

principle and interest was of short duration. In 
February, 1818, the Methodist trustees, protest- 
ing against the amount, agreed to accept the 
money rather than allow it to remain in the treas- 
ury. Their action was censured by many of the 
denomination. The New Haven and Granby soci- 
eties went so far as to petition the Legislature 
to be allowed to return their share to the treasury, 
which was readily granted. The Baptist trustees 
did not accept their share until June, 1820. 33 In 
defense of the humbler sectaries, it can be said 
that they did not benefit by the grant until after 
the severance of the church and state connection. 

The result of the act was an increase in sectarian 
bickerings. As a political bribe it brought dis- 
grace upon the party offering it and served Repub- 
licans to prove Federalist corruption. The attempt 
failed in everything save in convincing the opposi- 
tion that Federalism was fearful of its downfall. 

Oliver Wolcott and Jonathan Ingersoll were 
again the Toleration candidates. The Federalists 
named Smith and Ingersoll, hoping thereby to 
prevent a definitive Episcopalian break, to blur 
past memories, and to win back the substantial 
Episcopalian. The April, 181 7, campaign was 
vigorously conducted, for it was generally felt that 
the political crisis had been reached. Toleration- 
ists were hopeful; Federalists were depressed, yet 
fighting hard. 34 

33 Trumbull, Historical Notes, p. 36; Mercury, Feb. 17, Mar. 3, June 
16, 1818. 

n C our ant, Mar. 4, 11, Apr. 1; Mercury, Mar. 11, 1817; Robbins, 
Diary, I, 699. 



SUCCESS OF THE REFORM PARTY 347 

The Toleration party again featured its policies 
of church separation and no "religious test" for 
office. 35 Reform, they warned, would not be dan- 
gerous. They announced: " Sovereignty belonged 
to the people and offices were not held in fee sim- 
ple." The secret handling of the state's finances 
was again attacked. Appropriations and disburse- 
ments were made in a way to puzzle a lawyer, as 
the recently issued reports were so artfully specious 
as to be worthless. The whole system of taxation 
was reviewed. No state, it was said, suffered from 
higher or more unequal taxes. Land still remained 
the chief source of taxation; newer forms of wealth, 
capital, stock, and bank shares were not listed, 
or if so, at a low rate. In this way, the farmer 
paid about three times his rightful share, for a 
twenty-dollar cow was taxed as much as $233 
worth of bank stock and a two- thousand dollar 
farm as high as $50,000 in money or stock. Argu- 
ments of this nature were listened to by the farm- 
ers, already discontented with their lot. As a 
parting campaign shot the story was printed that 
the state, being deeply in debt, would levy an 
assessment of ten cents on the dollar. This cam- 
paign lie was not without results despite Treasurer 
Kingsbury's sharp denial. Men were not allowed 
to forget the Hartford Convention or the aristo- 
cratic rule of the Council. 36 

35 The New Haven Register saw Federalists "feeling their way to 
office through the broad alleys of their meeting houses." Quoted in 
Mercury, Feb. 25, 1817. 

36 Mercury and Courant, March-April, passim. 



348 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Chairman Hillhouse issued the Federalist state- 
ment, emphasizing the two-century old constitu- 
tion of the fathers, which had withstood every 
tempest. Religion must be supported, if only for 
the welfare of the state. No portion of the globe 
experienced greater tolerance. Then followed the 
usual commendation of the college and schools ; and 
misrepresentation of the principles and intentions 
of the "revolutionary faction." 37 An "Old Free- 
man" pathetically feared that "this state so long 
the nursery of morals, science and literature, so 
long the abode of peace, regularity and piety, will 
become the scene of discord, confusion, and every 
evil work — and her offices of government, cages of 
unclean and hateful birds Shall Con- 
necticut be revolutionized, now, after having 
triumphantly withstood every attack for twenty 
years — after the rest of the world has become sick 
of revolutions, and are coming back as fast as they 
can to the good old way?" 38 

Connecticut cast by far its heaviest vote, Wol- 
cott receiving 13,655 votes to Smith's 13,119, or, 
when corrections were made, a majority of about 
600 votes. It is probable that nearly every free- 
man voted. Yet only ten per cent of the white in- 
habitants were represented. This would suggest 
the number of free residents who, under the exist- 
ing laws, were disfranchised. Ingersoll was not op- 
posed, nor were the offices of Treasurer Kingsbury 

37 Courant, Mar. 4, 1817. 

38 Ibid., Mar. 25, 1817. 




Vote for Governor -April 1817 

Republican Towns i^^ 

Federalist Towns H^^l 



SUCCESS OF THE REFORM PARTY 349 

and Secretary Day contested. In the Assembly 
the Tolerationists had a heavy majority. 39 

The political map, based on the vote for gov- 
ernor, shows the Toleration strength in dissenting 
towns, in shipping centers; and the party's inroads 
into the conservative country towns. Even Litch- 
field and Windham counties were affected. If the 
map brought out the large Toleration minorities 
in Federalist towns, the result would be more 
marked. 

The election of Wolcott signified the entrance of 
a new era, new men and new ideas. Yet there 
lingers half a feeling of regret that the old order 
had to give way. John Cotton Smith was the last of 
the Puritan governors. His eulogist said: "It was 
the honour of Governor Smith to close worthily 
the long line of chief magistrates in whom the 
principles of the former era were represented, and 
to shed around the last days of the old Common- 
wealth, the lustre it had in the times of Haynes, 
Winthrop and Saltonstall." 40 To ardent Federal- 
ists his retirement to his estate in Sharon marked 
the end of Connecticut's golden age. Smith, of the 
blood of John Cotton, was unable to breast the 
new times. He was happier in his religious seclu- 
sion from which he was to witness during the next 
thirty years the complete transformation of Con- 
necticut into a modern state. 

39 Mercury, May 13, 1817; Niks' Register, XII, 128, 144; Robbins, 
Diary, I, 702. 

40 Andrews, John Cotton Smith, pp. 40-41. See Hollister, Connecticut, 
II, 517. Smith lived -intil 1845 on his thousand-acre estate, engaging 
in religious work. 



350 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

The Courant observed: "The retirement of 
Governor Smith from office may have produced 
regret; but it is a regret accompanied by the re- 
deeming recollection that faction and falsehood 
are his only enemies." 41 The Connecticut Mirror 
concurred with similar expressions. The Beechers 
thought only of God's Church. Happily for him- 
self, Dr. Dwight had not lived to see his defeat. 42 
The brilliant Dr. Nathan Strong who had none of 
the "mad and shameful spirit of proselytism," 
died the year before. 43 Robbins fatalistically con- 
soled himself: "We deserve the divine judgments 
and are now called to bear them." 44 General 
Humphreys was about to pass away. Noah Web- 
ster had already removed to Amherst and had 
seemingly lost his former interest in politics. 
The old generation was passing away. It is an 
interesting historical speculation to wonder if only 
with its death and the rise of the new generation 
could reform and new measures come to pass. 45 

"The Democrats are on tiptoe," wrote an obser- 
ver. "What they will attempt when the legislature 
meets no one can tell. I think in Governor Wolcott 
they have got a Tartar and will not find him 
exactly the man they wish." 46 While the Fourth 
was somewhat non-partisan, a few toasts expressed 

41 Courant, May 13, 1817. 

42 Autobiography, I, 344. 

43 Funeral Sermon by Rev. Nathan Perkins. 

44 Diary, I, 700. 

45 Cf. Arthur T. Hadley, Undercurrents in American Politics, p. 13. 

46 Gilman, Norwich, p. 113; Robbins, Diary, I, 709; Mercury, July 
15, 23, 1817. 



SUCCESS OF THE REFORM PARTY 351 

the views of Tolerationists : " Oliver Wolcott — 
Governor of the State, not of a Party;" " Connec- 
ticut — Emerging from the fogs of political delu- 
sion." Naturally, Republicans rejoiced, but prob- 
ably not to the same extent as if it had been less 
of a conservative victory. There was little ex- 
pression of a discreditable glee, which would 
lacerate Federalist feelings. 

Outside Republican opinion was decidedly jubi- 
lant. The Boston Yankee wrote of Connecticut: 
"This old and constant sinner in the walks of fed- 
eralism has renounced her political heresy, and 
returned to the bosom of the American family." 
The Baltimore Patriot declared: "The sweet and 
pacific voice of toleration, so worthy the name of 
republicanism, is now heard where before nought 
but the hoarse and hateful accents of persecution 
and illiberality resounded." The Boston Patriot 
saw in Wolcott's election the destruction of the 
sheet anchor of Federalism's last hope. 47 

Governor Wolcott's address to the General 
Assembly evidenced a breadth and depth of under- 
standing of which the late governors were quite 
incapable. 48 Wolcott expressed moderate views, 

47 Quoted in Mercury, Apr. 25, 1817. 

"Courant, May 20, 1817; Niles' Register, XII, 201 ff.; Greene, 
Religious Liberty, pp. 472 ff. National Intelligencer, May 22, said: 
"The speech is evidently the production of a master of the pen, and a 
man who knows the world .... Tho' a certain bigotry has 
characterised the councils of the state of Connecticut, heretofore, and 
a cool indifference to the national interests, which required the agency 
of reform, we should have been sorry to see it too rudely employed; 
for there are some institutions and habits, almost peculiar to Connecti- 
cut which, so far from disturbing we should be glad to see imitated and 
emulated in other sections of our country." 



352 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

encouraging cooperation and compromise. To the 
surprise of his opponents, there was "nothing of 
that frothy, bombastic jargon" which they narrowly 
ascribed to Republicans, so that they wondered if 
after all he was not a Federalist. They convinced 
themselves of Republican dissatisfaction. But the 
future, with its Wolcott administration of ten years, 
was destined to prove them in the wrong. He 
was the people's rather than a party governor. 

His view of the rights of conscience are worthy 
of quotation: 

It is the right and duty of every man, to worship and 
adore the Supreme Creator and Preserver of the Universe, 
in the manner most agreeable to the dictates of his own con- 
science; and no man or body of men have, or can acquire, 
by acts of licentiousness, impiety, or usurpation, any right 
to disturb the public peace, or control others in the exercise 
of their religious opinions or worship. 

. . . . There are no subjects respecting which the 
sensibility of freemen is more liable to be excited to im- 
patience, than in regard to the rights of conscience, and the 
freedom of suffrage. So highly do the people prize these 
privileges that they have sometimes ascribed to unfriendly 
motives towards particular sects and denominations what 
was sincerely intended to secure an equality of rights to 
every portion of the community. 

When people are so wrought up, he advised, pru- 
dence will cause the Legislature to investigate the 
grievances. This was indeed a moderate state- 
ment. 

A review of the election laws, he commended 
to the Assembly, with the observation that the 
purity of the ballot had been guaranteed by our 
fathers. As evidence of this, every freeman was 



SUCCESS OF THE REFORM PARTY 353 

oathbound to give his suffrage in conscience, with 
only the commonwealth in mind. Even to solicit 
votes or hand a freeman a ballot was a penal 
offense. He would have the Legislature see if, 
under the present system of voting, this ancient 
sacred character of the franchise was maintained, 
and act according to their findings. He pleaded 
for an independent judiciary, in which supreme 
judges should hold for life or good behavior. This 
was a reform which every honest Federalist favored. 
In no place was Wolcott's conservatism better 
attested, for he advised that the change be made 
immediately, and justice raised above partisan- 
ship at a time when the judges were of such a high 
type. 

The problem of emigration received his close 
attention : 

An investigation of the causes which produce the numer- 
ous emigrations of our industrious and enterprising young 
men is by far the most important subject which can engage 
our attention. We cannot justly repine at any improve- 
ment of their condition. They are our relatives and friends 
who in the honourable pursuit of comfort and independence, 
encounter voluntary toils and privations, and the success of 
their efforts affords a most exhilarating subject for contem- 
plation. Still it is certain that the ardour for emigration 
may be excessive, and perhaps the time has arrived, when 
it will be wise in those who meditate removals, to compare 
the value of what they must relinquish, with what they 
expect to acquire. On our part it is important to consider 
whether everything has been done which is practicable, to 
render the people contented, industrious, and frugal, and if 
causes are operating to reduce any class of citizens to a 
situation which leaves them no alternative but poverty or 
emigration, in that case to afford the most speedy relief. 



354 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

This, "fortunately for the people," could only 
be attained by making it to their interest to remain. 
Free circulation of capital and credit and the re- 
moval of taxes upon skill and industry were sug- 
gested measures. 

His intimate knowledge gave added weight to 
his views on manufacturing. Manufacturers were 
becoming non-partisan if the unanimity of their 
support signified anything. He predicted that 
the interest of state and nation was bound up in 
their development. Wealth had declined, agricul- 
ture languished, commerce was falling off, and 
factories, which employ many men, are suffering 
from depression. Hence it was urgent that the 
state second the efforts of the central government 
in giving relief to industry. 

In the matter of taxation he had long been 
professionally interested. 49 He prefaced his rec- 
ommendations with the remark that his views 
were the same as when he presented his report to 
Congress on the exhausting effects of unequal 
forms of taxation with particular reference to New 
England. His suggestion had been approved 
and enforced by Congress, and its value had been 
tested by time. He advised a systematic revision 
which should be based on ample data derived 
from a thorough study of conditions. The mode 
in vogue was more unequal and far more in- 
jurious than was generally recognized. The capi- 
tation tax worked a hardship on the day laborer, 
who without property paid a sixteenth of his 

49 Ford, Webster, I, 335. 



SUCCESS OF THE REFORM PARTY 355 

income in taxes. Heavy assessments on horses 
and oxen, which were only aids in the crea- 
tion of wealth, injured the farmer. Taxes on 
necessities were burdensome to the poor. The 
fire-place tax while small was unfair, for often the 
humble cottager paid as much as his wealthy 
neighbor in a splendid old mansion. Assessments 
on mills, machinery, manufactures, commercial in- 
vestments, profits of trades, and professions, were 
liable to serious objections unless the tax was 
nominal for the sake of statistics. Otherwise, it 
would cause a depression of industry and tend to 
drive men of skill and talents outside the state. 

Wolcott's address, outlining the Toleration pro- 
gram, was immediately taken under considera- 
tion by the Assembly. Every subject was referred 
to a committee of the Lower House, though custom 
had always favored joint committees. The Lower 
House took this occasion to show its antagonism 
to the Federalist Council. This antagonism was 
embittered by the Council's veto of a bill repeal- 
ing the infamous "stand-up law" and guaranteeing 
the secrecy of the ballot in its old-time purity. 50 

Little change was made in the certificate laws, 
save that certificates were to be lodged with the 
town clerk rather than the clerk of the settled 
society. All denominations were given equal 
privileges in taxing their members for Gospel sup- 
port, though in the case of the Congregationalists 
the state was a party to its collection. A clause 

50 For a review of the session, see Courani and Mercury, May- June, 
1817. 



356 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

allowing a person to certificate from one society 
to another of the same denomination was defeated, 
lest it result in the demoralization of societies. 
This act had an Episcopalian impress, for Repub- 
licans, Baptists and Methodists would never have 
retained the tithe. 

An act was passed, defining the office of comp- 
troller, who was instructed to render a report of 
expenditures and receipts every May, or oftener 
on demand. The current report, printed on the 
motion of a Federalist, disproved the Republican 
pre-election stories that the finances were in a bad 
way. A committee of investigation was appointed 
to make a complete study of the system of taxa- 
tion and report in the fall. Both parties were 
anxious to encourage manufacturing and thereby 
assist in lessening emigration. Jonathan Edwards, 
Jr., a Federalist, agreed that, as the state was 
already importing food stuffs and exporting little 
but beef and pork, its future wealth would be 
in manufactures. A law was enacted exempting 
workmen in cotton and woolen mills from a poll 
tax or militia service for a period of four years, 
and freeing factories with their machinery and 
five acres of land from taxation for a similar 
period. 51 

With regard to the judiciary, differences of opin- 
ion arose. All Tolerationists were not as willing as 
Wolcott to perpetuate the present judges in power. 
A bill was suggested, postponing action for a year, 

51 Public Laws (1808-1819), pp. 285, 287. 



SUCCESS OF THE REFORM PARTY 357 

with the expectation that then the Council would 
be revolutionized. As finally agreed, the matter 
was postponed six months. In the appointment 
of the superior court justices only Calvin God- 
dard was omitted from the list. This was not 
entirely due to a recognition of their worth, but to 
the assurance that the Council would not concur 
in their displacement. Over the other judicial 
appointments considerable party discord was dis- 
played. Federalists were bound to intrench them- 
selves in the judiciary, actually trying to name 
Federalist justices for strong Toleration towns. 
The caucus lists from New London and Fair- 
field counties were defeated in the Lower House, 
which saw its list thrown out by the Council. 
At length matters were compromised by adding 
Republican justices to the usual quota, so the 
number of justices, already too large, was increased 
by about one hundred. The Council's opposition 
resulted in a bitter determination to overthrow 
the aristocratic Upper House. 

The summer witnessed a weakening of party 
tension. This was observable in the character of 
the Fourth-of-July celebrations and in the recep- 
tion given Monroe on his tour of inspection of 
public defenses and munition plants. At New 
Haven the President was escorted by leaders of 
both parties, and even the clergy joined the citi- 
zens in doing him honor. In other towns it was 
the same. It was noted by Federalists that the 
President's "affable, unaffected and dignified 
deportment" impressed everyone. It was further 



358 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

believed that partisan spirit was losing its past 
frenzy. 62 

The September campaign found the Federalists, 
the opposition party, attacking the Wolcott pro- 
gram. They asked: What were the Demo- 
cratic designs on the judiciary, that they failed to 
be ruled by their chief's wish? The state funds, 
amounting to nearly two million dollars, had been 
well husbanded. Would the office-seekers be as 
trustworthy? If there was intolerance, why was 
it not discovered by the saintly Johnson rather 
than by the skeptical Abraham Bishop? Tolera- 
tion was a "mere stalking horse to power," used 
by federal office-holders grown rich and haughty. 
It was a cry to exclude from office Federalists of 
the Washington type. A direct tax on land would 
fall heavily on the farmer and ease the burden of 
lawyer, doctor, and manufacturer. Instead of 
discouraging emigration, it would drive farmers 
west. Their demand for a constitution would 
not be well received until the constitution-making 
activities of the French had been forgotten. Free- 
men were advised to hesitate, for "A new consti- 
tution will put all things afloat on the ocean of 
visionary experiment." Let voters remember that 
democracy and its leaders were the same, whether 
under the name of Toleration, whether abroad, 
in the sister states, or at home. 

Tolerationists centered their whole attention 
upon the crying need of breaking the vicious 

62 Contemporary newspapers, June- August, 1817. 



SUCCESS OF THE REFORM PARTY 359 

aristocratic control of the Council. 53 It was the 
only barrier, but an impassable one, in the way of 
reform. A struggle would result in a deadlock. 
Judges, justices, administrative officials, militia 
officers and the like could not be commissioned. 
To force the hand of the Council, would inevitably 
bring anarchy. Hence the determination of the 
new party to elect Toleration men to the Council. 
Otherwise, a constitutional convention could not 
be even thought of. All the old charges against 
the Council were aired: its opposition to the war; 
support of the Hartford Convention; authorship 
of the election law; militia appointments; secret 
sessions and factious control of justices. Federal- 
ists defended the Council by saying that if the 
militia stand was wrong, it had been taken with 
the people's welfare in mind and was later endorsed 
by the voters. If it was treasonable, why did the 
new party accept Jonathan Brace and Frederick 
Wolcott, while condemning their fellow-council- 
ors, Roger M. Sherman, Griswold and Goodrich? 

Party activities knew no bounds. Robbins, 
noting the great efforts of the reformers, prayed 
that "the Lord be our helper." 54 The Tolera- 

53 The Hartford Times observed: "Every bill which passed the 
House, intended either to remove popular complaints or redress public 
grievances, was neglected by the Council." Quoted in Niles' Register, 
XII, 240. Mercury, Aug. 26, Sept. 2, 9, 1817. 

54 Diary, I, 714. For Hartford activities, Mercury, Aug. 26, Sept. 
3, 1817. Judge Trumbull's characterization of the Tolerationist is 
interesting: "It is now more than three years since a combination was 
formed among the restless, ambitious, and dissolute part of the com- 
munity, to seize upon all the public offices in the state and apportion 



360 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

tionists shrewdly placed on their list five Federal- 
ists: Frederick Wolcott, the governor's brother 
and partner, Asa Chapman, Elias Perkins, Nathan 
Smith and the senior councilor, Jonathan Brace, 
now that Aaron Austin had withdrawn his name. 55 
For some reason Dr. Johnson was not included 
this time. Federalists ridiculed this compromise 
ticket whose members were guilty of long service 
and hostility to the late administration. 

The official vote gave the men endorsed by both 
tickets from 19,341 to 20,237 votes, while the 
highest Tolerationist had 12,647 and the highest 
Federalist a little over 10,000. The Tolerationists 
carried their full list. Reform could only be 
delayed six months at the most. In the Lower 
House the new party had at least 121 men out of 
201, besides a few neutral Federalists 56 — "a hetero- 
geneous combination of sects, sectarians and adven- 

them among themselves. If this combination was in some measure 
tacit It was nevertheless real and practical. To promote its views, 
a standard was raised, called Toleration, and offices were unblushingly 
offered to all who would resort to it. But lawyers without talents, 
integrity or business, quack doctors, broken merchants, idle farmers 
and idle mechanics, tavern hunters and gamblers, can afford to spend 
days, weeks, months, and years in low intrigues, in inculcating false- 
hoods, in preaching politics in bar-rooms, and at the corners of streets 
and highways, for the sake of an office with a small income; and that 
for this plain reason, that the time which they devote to the public use 
is worth nothing to themselves." Address (1819), pp. 4,13-14. 

55 The Connecticut Journal asked: "Can three or four drops of wine 
render a portion of arsenic less dangerous?" Quoted in Courant, Sept. 9. 

56 Courant, Oct. 14, Nov. 4, 1817; Niks' Register, XIII, 120. Towns 
like Southbury, Montville, New Canaan and Redding sent anti-Federal- 
ist representatives, though in those very places Republicans had long 
been classed with rattlesnakes. 



SUCCESS OF THE REFORM PARTY 361 

turers." Robbins expressed the sentiments of the 
ruling cast: 

Our God frowns upon us in his holy and terrible judg- 
ments. I hope and pray that we may not long be given 
up to the rage of the wicked. I consider it the success of 
iniquity against righteousness. 57 

Connecticut had at last capitulated after a seven- 
teen years' siege. 

Wolcott addressed the General Assembly in a 
speech so conciliatory and moderate that the 
Federalists hopefully believed that he was one 
of their own. 58 Republicans were not disheart- 
ened, but took occasion to inquire if the Bible 
had been destroyed or the meeting-houses over- 
turned. Wolcott spoke eulogistically of the old 
republican government, cautioning lest it be too 
radically changed: 

"It is natural and just that institutions which 
have produced so much honor and advantage, 
should be objects of veneration and attachment; 
and if, as may be admitted, some changes are 
expedient to adapt our government to the prin- 
ciples of a more enlightened age than that in which 
it was formed, and to reconcile it with the institu- 
tions which surround us, and by which our inter- 
ests are necessarily affected, still we are bound to 
recollect, that whatever is of common concern, 
ought to be adjusted by mutual consultations, and 

57 Diary, I, 716. 

58 Printed in Courant, Oct. 14. The Connecticut Journal wrote: 
"The Spirit of Reform has received a severe Rebuke, we hope it will 
flee from his presence." 



362 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

friendly advice; that party spirit and sinister in- 
terests ought to be wholly excluded from influence ; 
that it is the duty of reformers to repair and 
improve, not to subvert and destroy; that passion 
is a dangerous Counsellor; and that by the wise 
constitution of our nature nothing which is violent 
or unjust can be permanent." 

The governor suggested an inquest of the prison 
at Newgate where the conditions of imprisonment 
were notoriously bad and inhuman. An act 
slightly ameliorative was the result. In this way 
he was a precursor of the prison reformers. 59 

The legislative session was characterized by a 
struggle between the two Houses. 60 The Council 
was black Federalist, save the three assistants who 
were jointly supported by both parties; the As- 
sembly was preponderatingly Tolerationist, with 
a speaker and two clerks of that complexion. 
The orthodox Council had no respect for a Lower 
House composed of Democrats, apostate Federal- 
ists, office-seeking lawyers and designing church- 
men, with an Episcopalian minister and a Metho- 
dist elder among its five chaplains. The opposi- 
tion resulted in a deadlock. The Lower House 
was so bitter that it defeated all measures coming 
from the Council in its desire to postpone business 
a six-month, when new councilors would be elected. 
Again, the Lower House refused to appoint the 
usual joint committees to consider the governor's 

69 Public Laws (1808-1819), for this session. See Noah A. Phelps, 
A History of the Copper Mines and Newgate Prison. 

M Courant and Mercury, October-November, 1817, passim. 



SUCCESS OF THE REFORM PARTY 363 

recommendations. In retaliation, the Council tried 
with a degree of success to force Federalist justices 
on Republican towns. This was the real crux of 
the difficulty. 

The committee on taxation presented an excel- 
lent report. 61 Their data, prepared by the select- 
men of seventy-six towns, showed an average 
town expense of eight cents on the listed dollar, 
outside of highway, bridge and society rates. 
Poll taxes amounting to three-tenths of the total 
tax were levied on rich and poor alike. Farmers' 
neat cattle, which paid another three-tenths, were 
rated at thirty per cent; while silver plate was 
rated at five per cent, capital at six per cent, bank 
stock three per cent, carriages twenty per cent and 
watches forty per cent. The land tax depended on 
whether the land was classed as meadow, plow or 
pasture, without regard to valuation. Thus cheap, 
unproductive lands far from a market were rated 
as high as, or possibly higher than lands far more 
valuable. A single- taxer would be driven to 
despair at its inequalities. The tax upon young 
merchants and professional men was found to be 
unjust, deterrent to industry and forcing progres- 
sive youths to emigrate. Equalization was en- 
tirely unknown. The committee recommended 
an entire change, urging that bills be framed with 
the school-fund in view, that real estate be assessed 
according to valuation, and that the capitation 
tax be greatly reduced. 

The Assembly forced the repeal of the "stand- 

61 Printed Oct. 28. 



364 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

up" election law, which had served its Federalist 
authors well in long retarding Republicanism. 62 
The question of suffrage was discussed. A revi- 
sion of rules was considered. A humanitarian act 
was passed, freeing a family man's limited personal 
possessions in the way of necessaries of life, and a 
physician's horse from seizure by distraint. Sena- 
tor Hillhouse's salary was reduced, on the plea 
that the commissioner's duties were lighter. Lit- 
tle could be done in the way of constructive legis- 
lation. 

At the close of the session the majority party 
addressed the friends of Toleration, suggesting a 
constitutional convention. 63 As the framing of a 
constitution was a weighty matter, it was advised 
that careful study be made of the various govern- 
mental forms. The Toleration party had become 
the "Constitution and Reform" party, with their 
platform for the following year clearly stated. 
Regret was expressed that, while the questions of 
taxation, militia and suffrage had been considered, 
little had been accomplished. However, reform, to 
be lasting, must be slow. With this explanation 
they returned safe to the people "the palladium" 
of authority. 

In accordance with the desires of the memorial- 
ists, Cheshire in its November town meeting 
instructed its representatives "to use their in- 
fluence and procure a recommendation to the people 

62 Minutes in Courant, Oct. 28; Niks' Register, XIII, 127, 131, 193; 
Public Laws, p. 292. 

63 Printed in Mercury, Nov. 4, 1817. 



SUCCESS OF THE REFORM PARTY 365 

of this state, to choose delegates to form a Con- 
stitution of Civil Government, to be submitted to 
the People for their consideration and adoption." 64 
New Haven followed in December with similar 
instructions to her representatives. There the 
best and most candid Federalists were said to have 
favored the resolution. In January Wallingford 
declared "that the Charter of King Charles II 
contains principles obnoxious to a Republican 
government; that its powers wert annulled by the 
declaration of Independence ; that it never has 
been adopted by the people of this state as their 
Constitution of Civil Government; and that the 
Legislature have not regarded it as such, but have 
I repeatedly modified and changed the government 
i without any reference to that Instrument." 65 Dan- 
i bury in town meeting resolved that, in view of the 
dangers of an uncontrolled government, steps 
1 should be taken to draft a constitution precisely 
1 defining all powers. No time was more propitious 
| than the present when all was quiet. This same 
| month witnessed similar action on the part of New 
] London, Hamden, Windsor and Woodbury. In 
( February meetings, Middletown, Suffield, Groton, 
Lyme, Stonington and Newtown issued similar in- 
|structions. Hartford issued a call in March; Red- 
j ding, Stafford and Greenwich in April. Other 
I towns rapidly fell into line. 

All the resolutions were somewhat similar in 
tone, calling for a written constitution accurately 

54 Beach, Cheshire, p. 260. 
96 Mercury, Jan. 27, 1818. 



366 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

defining and separating the powers of government, 
and plainly guaranteeing the rights of citizens. 
Here we have republican purity of government 
illustrated in the town meeting as the original 
source of authority. While all Federalists were 
not opposed to the proposed convention, the party 
as an organization voted against the constitution- 
resolutions. Federalist towns naturally voted down 
such revolutionary resolves. 

Newspaper articles and widely circulated pam- 
phlet literature continued to mold public opinion. 
A splendid series of essays, moderate in tone, 
appeared to quiet Federalist fears with the motto: 
"It is the duty of Reformers to repair and improve, 
not to subvert and destroy." While it was taken 
for granted that there was no legal constitution, it 
was agreed that a writing down of the old and es- 
tablished principles was advisable. The ardor of 
reformers was checked by recalling Cromwell's 
career and the French Revolution. The written 
portions of the British constitution were then con- 
sidered to demonstrate the need of certain funda- 
mental, permanent principles, even where the con- 
stitution was unwritten. The writer defined as 
essential: A bill of rights; barriers against cor- 
ruption or the abridgment of the franchise; ample 
protection of the public money; and a provision 
preventing a repetition of the late hostility to the 
national goverment. His dispassionate, clear pres- 
entation of the subject won for him a wide hearing, 
and indubitably impressed thoughtful freemen. 

"An Address to the people of Litchfield County" 



SUCCESS OF THE REFORM PARTY 367 

by "Solyman Brown" was earnestly recommended 
by reformers to the people of. that " benighted sec- 
tion." 66 George H. Richards, a Federal-Republi- 
can of New London, published an essay, "The 
Politics of Connecticut," containing a plain state- 
ment of the arguments for a written constitution, 
which would establish religious and political 
equality. 

Constitution and reform men were puzzled at 
the Federalist failure to nominate men for gover- 
nor and lieutenant governor. A few of the deepest 
Federalists cast ballots for Timothy Pitkin as a 
protest. Wolcott received 16,432 votes and In- 
gersoll a couple of thousand less. Reform assist- 
ants were elected by a wide margin. For the 
j first time there was a real contest for the office of 
! treasurer, the Republican, Isaac Spencer, Jr., re- 
ceiving 8,383 votes to 7,673 for Kingsbury. As 
I neither had a majority, Spencer's appointment 
: depended upon the General Assembly. Thomas 
I Day was re-elected secretary without opposition, 
i The real interest centered in the representatives, 
for in their choice the freemen spoke for or against 
j the constitution. One hundred and thirty- two 
I Tolerationists were seated to sixty-nine Federal- 
ists. The issue was decided; Federalism was 
j broken; the state was revolutionized. 67 

General Election Day (May 14, 1818) marked 

: an epoch. President Day declining to preach, 

his alternate, the Episcopalian rector of New 

66 Mercury, Jan. 27, 1818. 

"Mercury, Apr. 7, 21, May 19, 26, 1818; Robbins, Diary, I, 738. 



368 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Haven, Rev. Harry Croswell, officiated. As an 
Episcopalian historian writes, this was a bold de- 
parture to those "who fondly imagined, that they 
had a monopoly of all the religious and civil 
power in the state." 68 The sermon rang out with 
the text: Render unto Caesar the things that are 
Caesar's, and to God the things of God. It was a 
powerful plea for Christian toleration, spiritual 
ministers, and a vigorous assault on political 
preachers. Less than a hundred ministers ap- 
peared at the banquet. Fewer came each year 
until finally the day lost its religious character in 
the routine of vote-counting. 

The May session of the Legislature was of vital 
importance in the history of the state. The ex- 
pectations of the reformer must be satisfied, but 
in a way to quiet Federalist fears. I Wolcott's 
address cautioned moderation at every turn: 

I presume that it will not be proposed by any one to 
impair our institutions, or to abridge any of the rights or 
privileges of the people. The State of Connecticut, as at 
present constituted, is, in my opinion, the most venerable 
and precious monument of republican government, existing 

among men The Governors and counsellors 

have been elected annually, and the representatives semi- 
annually elected by the freemen, who have always consti- 
tuted the great body of the people. Nor has the manifes- 
tation of the powers of the freemen been confined to the 
elections. They have ever been accustomed to public con- 
sultations and deliberations of intricacy and importance. 

68 Beardsley, Episcopal Church, II, 164. Robbins observed: "Mr. 
Croswell the churchman .... preached and read service. It 
was pretty barren. None but a Congregational minister ever preached 
before and never ought again." Diary, I, 742. The Courant, Nov. 11, 
1817, noticed the "novelty.'' 



SUCCESS OF THE REFORM PARTY 369 

Their meetings have been conducted with the same order 

and decorum as those of this assembly The 

support of religion, elementary schools, paupers, public 
roads and bridges — comprising about eight-tenths of the 
public expenses — has been constantly derived from taxes 
imposed by the votes of the people; and the most interest- 
ing regulations of our police have been and still are enforced 
by officers deriving their powers from annual appointments. 

The Charter had always been regarded as "the 
palladium of the liberties" of Connecticut, and 
justly so, he felt, for by it the king's claims to the 
territory were surrendered to the people. He 
continued : 

Considered merely as an instrument denning the powers 
and duties of magistrates and rulers, the Charter may justly 
be considered as provisional and imperfect; yet it ought to 
be recollected that what is now its greatest defect was for- 
merly a pre-eminent advantage, it being then highly impor- 
tant to the people to acquire the greatest latitude of au- 
thority, with an exemption from British interference and 

control If I correctly comprehend the wishes 

which have been expressed by a portion of our fellow citi- 
zens, they are now desirous, as the sources of apprehension 
From external causes are at present happily closed, that the 
Legislative, Executive, and Judicial authorities of their own 
government may be more precisely defined and limited, and 
the rights of the people declared and acknowledged. It is 
your province to dispose of this important subject in such 
manner as will best promote general satisfaction and 
tranquillity. 69 

This portion of the governor's address was re- 
ferred to a select committee of five from the 
Assembly. Although the Council had been re- 
formed, the Republicans displayed a sensitiveness 
in maintaining the dignity of the House. Their 

"Mercury, May 19, 1818; Trumbull, Historical Notes, pp. 44-45. 



370 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

committee reported a general desire, which should 
be granted, "for a revision and reformation of the 
structure of our civil government and the estab- 
lishment of a Constitutional Compact." The politi- 
cal happiness, the committee considered to be due 
to other causes rather than "to any peculiar in- 
trinsic excellence in the form and character of the 
government itself." Barriers must be raised 
against legislative encroachment stouter than those 
provided by the frequency of elections, which 
might be abolished by an arbitrary power. It was 
advised that "the organization of the different 
branches of government, the separation of their 
powers, the tenure of office, the elective franchise, 
liberty of speech and of the press, freedom of con- 
science, trial by jury — rights which relate to these 
deeply interesting subjects ought not to be suf- 
fered to rest on the frail foundation of legislative 
will or discretion." Concluding, the committee ob- 
served that the time was auspicious and that the 
experience of other states would guide them. 

This report aroused an interesting debate. 70 
The Federalists, while few in number, were among 
the ablest and most aggressive members. Aaron 
Austin saw no necessity for change because the 
people had long lived happily under the present 
government. He refused to admit that there was 
no constitution — part was written and part un- 
written. Connecticut had the best of the Ameri- 
can constitutions, just as that of England was 

70 See Mercury and Courant, June 9, 1818; cf. Trumbull, Hist. Notes, 
p. 49. 



SUCCESS OF THE REFORM PARTY 371 

the most excellent in the old world. Jonathan 
Edwards, Jr., considered the present constitution 
framed by the people in 1639, merely ratified by 
Charles and indirectly assented to by the people, as 
the best in the world. A written constitution was 
valuable only to define privileges extorted from 
a tyrant, or as a compact between sovereign states. 
While the majority must rule, a revision of the 
oldest and purest constitution would not be ad- 
vantageous to the people. Others felt that there 
had not been sufficient demand or that the busy 
season should be given to agriculture, not constitu- 
tion-making. At any rate, there could be no 
danger, one advanced, for did not the federal 
constitution guarantee a republican government? 

Among the Republican members, Enoch Bur- 
rows, James Stevens, G. Hubbard, S. A. Foote and 
H. W. Edwards rehearsed the trite old arguments. 
However, the majority wasted little time in debate. 
They simply forced through the resolution calling 
for a constituent convention. 71 

Freemen were ordered to meet on July 4, to 
elect in town meeting the usual number of repre- 
sentatives to the convention, which was to con- 
vene at Hartford on the fourth Wednesday in 

71 Trumbull, Historical Notes, pp. 46-47. Objection to the day was 
silenced by Col. John McClellan who said: "He knew the fourth of 
July was a merry day, but he thought if the people began early in the 
morning they would be able to get through before they were disqualified 
to vote." Minutes in Courant, June 9. See Anderson, Waterbury, I, 
509. There was considerable town rivalry, New Haven losing by 71 
to 81, and Middle town by 61 to 87. A Republican suggested Hart- 
ford in order that the disgrace of the last convention be obliterated. 
Mercury, June 16. 



372 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

August. When the constitution, framed by this 
body, received the approval of such a majority of 
voters as the convention should decide upon, it 
was resolved that it should be the supreme law of 
the state. 72 

This session also identified itself with certain 
reform measures. 73 Acts were passed for the aid 
of paupers, for relief of bail, freeing Quakers from 
militia service and fines, and rating bonds and 
bank stock as personal property. A resolution 
provided for galleries in the Council Chamber, thus 
removing the veil of impenetrable secrecy. A 
suffrage act, based on similar ones in ten states, 
was passed, giving the vote to free males of twenty- 
one years who paid taxes or served in the militia, 
were of moral character, and residents of the town 
for four months. 

72 It was well that none of the ratios suggested were accepted, or the 
constitution would have failed. Col. John Alsop proposed ratification 
by two-thirds of the towns; Calvin Butler by four-fifths; and James 
Stevens three-fifths. Jonathan Edwards desired a three-fifths vote of 
the electors. Courant, June 9; Mercury, June 16, 23, 1817. 

73 Public Laws, pp. 298 £f. 



CHAPTER IX 

Completion of the Revolution 

T N accordance with the resolution of the General 
A Assembly the freemen of the various towns 
met on July 4, 181 8, to elect delegates to the con- 
vention. The preliminary campaign evidenced 
party activity, but less bitterness than might be 
expected. 1 Ultra-Federalism did not control the 
party's counsels. Federalist leaders accepted the 
revolution as an accomplished fact. Instead of 
offering a bootless opposition, they decided to use 
their strength as a check on reformists, and to pre- 
serve as far as possible the spirit of the old govern- 
ment. The Connecticut man was generally too 
practical to care to die in the last ditch. Federalist 
voters were urged not to refrain from voting, but 
to co-operate with honest Republicans in electing 
men of proven integrity. It was argued that the 
framing of a constitution was a non-partisan affair 
of such importance that it behooved every town 
to name its best man. 

The election was marked by the presence of many 
newly enfranchised freemen, whose votes were an 
important factor in doubtful towns. Naturally, 
they were won by the Tolerationist appeals to 

1 Trumbull, Historical Notes, p. 51; Courant, June 21; Connecticut 
Mirror, June 29, 1818. 

373 



374 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

remember the party which effected their emanci- 
pation. 2 The result was a heavy poll. 

In Hartford, where both parties were well or- 
ganized, a vote of 796 was registered, amounting to 
fourteen and one-tenth per cent of the total popu- 
lation, whereas the vote of New Haven amounted 
to only seven per cent. Hartford's vote was so 
unusual that it gave credit to the charges of cor- 
ruption, bribery, ballot stuffing, illegal voting, and 
the rude, tumultuous conduct of both the chal- 
lenged voters and the young Federalist watchers. 
The result was that each party elected one repre- 
sentative. Tolerationists were selected in New 
Haven without disagreeable party strife. 3 Feder- 
alists foresaw their worst fears realized ; conditions 
would henceforth be as in New York or Phila- 
delphia. No longer could elections be carried out in 
quiet and decorum with such liberal suffrage quali- 
fications. Rev. Thomas Robbins, who preached at 
Scan tick, noted: "The Universal suffrage law is 
horrible." 4 

While the vote resulted in returning a Tolera- 
tion majority, there was a reduction in the number, 
which that party controlled in the last session. 
It was a doubtful majority, estimated at first by 
different editors at nine, twelve, twenty-one, and 

2 In Hartford there were some 85 new freemen; in New Haven, 15; 
in a town like Scantick, 60. These only represent what was true all 
over the state. Conn. Mirror, June 29, July 13; Conn. Journal, Oct. 
16; Conn. Herald, June 30, 1818; Robbins, Diary, I, 748. 

3 Material on the election from the Conn. Journal, Conn. Herald, 
Courant and Mercury, issues of July 7, 14, 21, 1818. 

4 Diary, I, 748. 



COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION 375 

thirty, out of a total of two-hundred and one dele- 
gates. This discrepancy was probably due to the 
selection of a number of Episcopalians of un- 
settled political views. Federalist writers rejoiced 
in this falling off, while Republicans explained it 
as a non-partisan election in which some towns 
selected a delegate from each party. In other 
towns, the minority concentrated on one man. 
For instance, in Hartford, Nathaniel Terry, and in 
New Haven, Simeon Baldwin were the only active 
Federalist candidates. 5 A strong minority at the 
polls and in the convention was a distinct advan- 
tage as a moderating influence. In this, as in the 
character of the delegates, the people had chosen 
wisely. 

Among the delegates were men of all classes and 
shades of political and religious tenets. 6 There 
were men like Governor Treadwell, Jesse Root, 
Col. John McClellan and Aaron Austin, who 
epitomized in themselves the old order and re- 
ligious fear of innovation. Timothy Pitkin and 
Nathaniel Terry represented the moderate Feder- 
alists. Among the original Democrats were men 

5 In New Haven, while James Hillhouse was a candidate, all efforts 
were centered on the election of S. Baldwin. The New Haven Register 
wrote of Hillhouse, referring to his removal of the graveyard from the 
green "As a most desperate and ferocious prosecutor of the most des- 
perate and ferocious deeds. God forbid that the destroyers of the 
sepulchres of our fathers should ever receive the suffrages of our sons." 
See Conn. Journal, June 30, July 7, 1818. 

6 Trumbull, Historical Notes, pp. 52-53; Morgan, Connecticut, III, 
111 ff.; Robbins, Diary, I, 749. Dexter's Biographical Sketches is valu- 
able in tracing the careers of members who were Yale graduates. 



376 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

like " Boss" Alexander Wolcott, Pierrepont Edwards, 
Joshua Stow, James Stevens, David Tomlinson, 
Christopher Man waring. Nathan Smith and Gover- 
nor Wolcott stood as the foremost Tolerationists. 
Congregationalists of the Saybrook type sat with 
dissenters and infidels and in proximity to a Bap- 
tist and Methodist elder or two. Lawyers and 
ex- judges predominated, yet there were at least 
a dozen physicians. Seated with plain farmers 
were men of wealth like Tread well, Wolcott, Mit- 
chell, Tomlinson, Peter Webb, Pierrepont Edwards, 
Oliver Burnham, and Patrick Clark. A few were 
federal office-holders. Some forty were recipients 
of Yale degrees, with here and there a graduate from 
Princeton, Brown or elsewhere. Seven members 
had served in the convention which ratified the 
United States Constitution. A few had seen service 
in the unreformed Council, and nine were members 
of the Toleration Council. Several had served 
in Congress, two were governors. A few were 
high in militia circles or were distinguished as 
veterans of the Revolution. Others were to win 
high places in state and national life. 

It was a representative gathering. In many 
cases its members were widely known and inti- 
mately acquainted with the state's needs. They 
understood and appreciated its past history, and 
foresaw something of its future. The majority 
were inspired with toleration. Such a body was 
well prepared to draft a constitution which would 
be acceptable to their people and able to stand the 
test of time. It would be a constitution in which 



COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION 377 

reform was touched with justice, moderation and 
toleration. 

On August 26, 1 81 8, the convention assembled 
at the State House in Hartford. 7 As the required 
two-thirds of the delegates were present, the 
meeting was called to order by Jesse Root of 
Coventry, who was distinguished as the oldest 
man present. James Lanman, a Republican law- 
yer from Norwich, was elected clerk on the third 
ballot. Governor Wolcott, representing Litchfield, 
was honored with the presidency. The officers 
sworn, the next business was the examination and 
attestation of the members' election certificates. 8 

A resolution was then adopted, inviting the 
various ministers of the city to serve as chaplains, 
for all sessions were to be commenced with prayer. 
The sheriff was instructed to act as the officer of 
the convention. A committee of five — Judge 
Nathaniel Terry, Hon. Timothy Pitkin, historian 
and statistician, Senator Stephen Mix Mitchell, 
Federalists, and Hon. Amasa Larned and James Stev- 
ens, Tolerationists — was named to consider the rules 
which should govern the debates. Their report 
was accepted without objection, save by Treadwell 
who would increase the quorum to more than a 
majority. A compromise spirit was seen in the 
unanimity with which this report was reviewed, 

7 Federalists trusted that the motives of the second Hartford Con- 
vention would be as pure as the first. Toast in Conn. Journal, July 
7. Robbins felt concerned about their proceedings, but hoped that 
"God will guide them and preserve them from evil." Diary, I, 755. 

8 Journal, pp. 10-11; Minutes in Mercury, and Conn. Journal, Sept. 
1, 1818. 



378 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

although the committee was Federalist in point of 
majority and weight. 

James Stevens introduced this resolution: "That 
this convention do deem it expedient to proceed at 
this time to form a Constitution of Civil Govern- 
ment for the people of this State." A desultory 
debate followed. Jesse Root and Governor Tread- 
well, leaders of the "extreme right," argued earnest- 
ly against proceeding on the assumption that the 
state was without a constitution, as a presumptuous 
sinning against the fathers. Timothy Pitkin, wav- 
ing aside sentiment, supported the motion which 
was shortly adopted. This inaugurated the real 
work. 

On the following morning the question was dis- 
cussed as to whether the constitution should be 
drafted in committee of the whole or by a select 
committee. It was agreed that twenty-four mem- 
bers, three from every county, be delegated to 
frame and report a constitution. Dr. Sylvester 
Wells, a Universalist, Timothy Pitkin and Elisha 
Phelps, the latter a Republican attorney, repre- 
sented Hartford County; Nathan Smith, Tolera- 
tionist attorney and brother of the member of the 
Hartford Convention, William Bristol, a wealthy 
Republican attorney, and William Todd, an ardent 
young Congregationalist lawyer, New Haven; 
Moses Warren, Amasa Larned and state's attor- 
ney James Lanman, New London; Judge Pierrepont 
Edwards, James Stevens and Gideon Tomlinson, 
a young Republican, Fairfield; Peter Webb, an 
early Republican merchant, George Learned and 



COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION 379 

Edmund Freeman, both graduates of Brown and 
Baptists, Windham; John Welsh, a Republican 
of means, Judge Augustus Pettibone and Orange 
Merwin, Litchfield; Joshua Stowe, William Hunger- 
ford, a Republican recently out of college, and 
Thomas Lyman, Middlesex; Daniel Burrows, an 
illiterate Democrat, Asa Wiley, a stout Federalist, 
and Dr. John S. Peters, a Republican, Tolland. 

This committee was fairly representative, though 
the minority was only awarded five places. 9 Chair- 
man Edwards was easily first among the Tolera- 
tionists, just as Timothy Pitkin stood out as the 
recognized leader of the Federalists. Twenty-two 
towns were represented, only New Haven and 
Hebron winning two places. Judging from the 
number of men of political and professional promi- 
nence or on the threshold of splendid careers, care 
had been taken to select men of worth. 

Among the twenty-four were twelve Yale gradu- 
ates, one from Princeton and two from Brown. 
This is noteworthy in view of the Republican 
attacks on Yale and its favored position. The 
interests of the college were amply secured. At 
least fourteen were lawyers, three of whom were 
leaders at the bar besides those holding judicial 
offices. Edwards and Learned were veterans of 
the convention of 1788. Bristol, Wells, Peters, 
Lanman and Webb were Republican councilors. 
Tomlinson and Peters were destined to become 
governors ; three later became United States Sena- 
tors; and five, members of Congress. Pitkin, Ed- 

9 Cf. Trumbull, Historical Notes, p. 53. 



380 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

wards and Learned had already served in Congress. 
Joshua Stow, said to be a pronounced unbeliever, 10 
represented the type of local politician. William 
Hungerford, the last survivor of the convention, 
was notorious among those without religion. Dr. 
Peters had long been termed atheist. This did not 
prevent the Congregational clergy from offering 
prayers for him on learning how he defended their 
society fund. Nathan Smith was there to watch 
Episcopalian interests. The five Federalists repre- 
sented a more or less orthodox Congregationalism. 
Republicans upheld the various forms of dissent. 
Hence all interests were guarded. 

The committee submitted the preamble and a 
bill of rights on the next day. This celerity would 
be hard to understand, if one did not learn that 
both the preamble and bill were nearly an exact 
replica of those in the Mississippi constitution, 
adopted the year previous. 11 

The preamble adopted by the convention with- 
out debate declared that: 

The people of Connecticut, acknowledging with grati- 
tude the good providence of God, in having permitted them 
to enjoy a free government, do, in order to more effectually 
define, secure and perpetuate the liberties, rights and privi- 
leges, which they have derived from their ancestors, hereby, 

10 The Conn. Journal (Mar. 10, 1819) wrote of Stowe: "While in the 
convention, he openly avowed that in his opinion the government had 
no more right to provide by law for the support of the worship of the 
Supreme Being, than for the support of the worship of the devil." Stowe 
sued for libel, and was awarded damages. 3 Conn. Reports, p. 325. 

11 Conn. Journal, Sept. 1, advised its readers to compare this with 
the constitution of Mississippi, drafted August, 1817. See N ties' 
Register, XIII, 54; Mercury, Sept. 16, 1817. 



COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION 381 

after a careful consideration and revision, ordain and estab- 
lish the following Constitution and form of civil govern- 
ment. 

Here was a recognition of the past and a pronounced 
religious spirit. 

The bill of rights aroused a heated debate. 12 
Tread well saw no need of a full declaration, for 
they were not contending with an aristocratic body 
or a tyrant. Such a bill, he considered, would 
only tend to abridge the power of the people. If 
some guarantee was necessary, it should be decided 
in committee of the whole. Alexander Wolcott 
arose in opposition. He believed that the govern- 
ment of the fathers was truly democratic, being 
at fault only in administration. He was opposed 
to alteration, unless definite benefits were to be 
derived. A multiplying of ordinances would only 
embarrass the Legislature, for "the virtue of the 
people was our best security." He would define 
the present system in a general way with all details 
left to legislative enactment. He defied any man 
to erect a tyranny amid an enlightened people or 
draft a constitution which should preserve liberty by 
mere paper rules. A legislature which subverted 
the liberties of the people could not be re-elected. 
There was no need of drawing up a code of laws to 
govern their own representatives. Superfluous he 
considered clauses guaranteeing trial by jury, 
habeas cor pics and the right of assemblage, when 

12 Journal, pp. 17-21, 74-77. The New England Galaxy noted that 
it was similar to the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights quoted in 
Mercury, Nov. 3, 1818. See Baldwin in New Haven Hist. Soc, Papers, 
V, 211 ff. 



382 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

these were rights never questioned. Guarantees 
against excessive bail, compensation for property 
acquired for public uses and quartering of militia, 
were as unnecessary as uncertain. Always to 
put the military in strict subordination to civil 
tribunals might in practice be found bad. Had not 
Andrew Jackson been compelled to silence the civil 
authorities on grounds, not of law but of safety? 
"In a Constitution," he shrewdly remarked, "he 
would recognize none but great and general princi- 
ples. He would adopt few." Such moderation 
on the part of the most notorious Jacobin was 
astonishing. 

Aaron Austin, who had served nearly a quarter 
of a century in the Council, confessed himself in 
accord with Wolcott. Judges Root and Mitchell 
saw no necessity of such a bill. Root observed 
that government could be traced back to God's 
established rules and grounded on this pure source 
if man in his depravity had not disregarded them: 
"A pure Republic is that in which the people govern 
themselves." As this had been the case since 1639, 
he was opposed to any infringement of the people's 
rights. 

The declaration was then reviewed by sections. 
As Alexander Wolcott observed, many of its pro- 
visions were superfluous. Two proposals of this 
nature were struck out. One had provided that 
no citizen should be exiled or prevented from emi- 
grating on any pretext. The other declared that 
no person should be molested for his opinions on 
any subject, nor suffer civil or political incapacity 



COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION 383 

in consequence thereof. Other provisions quite 
as unnecessary were allowed to remain. If future 
students were only able to study the past through 
the bill of rights as preventive legislation, they 
would arrive at strange views regarding the liberty, 
republicanism and history of the state. 

Other clauses provided that there should be 
liberty of speech, writing and publication with 
libel responsibility; that no law curtailing liberty 
of speech or press should be enacted; that libel 
cases should be tried by jury; that the home should 
be secured from unreasonable searches; that the 
accused in criminal prosecutions should have a 
hearing, a fair trial, impartial jury, speedy justice, 
and, in capital cases a grand jury presentment; 
that no person should suffer arrest save according 
to law; that no excessive fines or bail be levied; 
that habeas corpus be guaranteed; that no person 
be attainted by the Legislature; that the right of 
assemblage and petition be maintained; that no 
hereditary honors or emoluments be granted; that 
there be no quartering of troops save in war; and 
that jury trial remain inviolate. None of these prin- 
ciples had been violated, with the possible exception 
of democratic charges of unfair jury trials. The 
military power had always been subject to the 
civil, and the right of bearing arms had not been 
questioned. Some of these rights were guaranteed 
by the United States Constitution, while others 
were sacred by the common law. Their inclusion 
can be accounted for only because such a bill of 



384 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

rights was deemed democratic and necessary accord- 
ing to the political philosophy of the day. 

Other sections of the bill were quite relevant. 
The first section declared "that all men when 
they form a social compact are equal in rights; and 
that no man or set of men are entitled to exclusive 
public emoluments or privileges from the com- 
munity." That is, there was no longer to be a 
Standing Order. The second section declared 
"that all political power is inherent in the people, 
and all free governments are founded on their 
authority, and instituted for their benefit, and that 
they have at all times an undeniable and indefeasi- 
ble right to alter their form of government in such 
manner as they think expedient." 13 This embodied 
the Republican contention that a constitution 
should be of the people, not by grace of royal gift. 
In this form it was acceptable to the Federalists, 
for they had always maintained that the old gov- 
ernment had practically, if not nominally, been 
grounded on popular sovereignty. Yet it was the 
right of revolution which had been called into 
question by the treatment of the five justices and 
by the opprobrium cast upon Republicanism. 

The third section ordered "that the exercise 
and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, 
without discrimination, shall forever be free to all 

13 It is interesting to compare this with Hooker's sermon of May 
31, 1638, in which, after pointing out that the choice of public magis- 
strates belongs to the people, he declared: "They who have the power 
to appoint officers and magistrates, it is in their power, also, to set the 
bounds and limitations of the power and place into which they call 
them." Conn. Hist. Soc, Collections, I, 20. 



COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION 385 

persons in this State ; provided that the right hereby 
declared and established shall not be construed 
as to excuse acts of licentiousness or to justify prac- 
tices inconsistent with the peace and safety of the 
State." The next section enacted that "no pref- 
erence shall be given by law to any Christian sect 
or mode of worship." The term Christian had 
been substituted for religious. While all religious 
forms consistent with morality and law were given 
legal protection, Christianity was emphasized as 
the state's belief. There is a hint of discrimination 
against the Hebrew, and possibly the Unitarian. 

The second article separated the powers of 
government into executive, judicial and legislative 
departments. 14 Fairchild argued in favor of this 
division, which was in effect in all the other states 
and the national government. It would obviate 
the danger of further conflicts. In his opinion they 
had long been approaching this ideal of separation, 
so that it was not such an innovation. Treadwell, 
Root, and McClellan feared that the additional pow- 
ers given an independent executive would be danger- 
ous in case the governor lacked talents and correct 
judgment. Treadwell could not assent to the 
withdrawal of the governor from the Council of 
which he had always been a constituent part. 
However, the article was passed without a yea 
and nay vote. 

A corollary, offered by the committee, provided 
that "no person or collection of persons, being 
one of those departments, shall exercise any power 

14 Journal, pp. 20-22. 



386 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

properly belonging to either of the others, except 
in the instances hereinafter expressly directed or 
permitted." Had this been accepted, an artificial 
division would have been created, preventing any 
overlapping of powers. In the working constitu- 
tion the theory has badly broken down. 15 How- 
ever, the doctrinaire division was advantageous 
in preventing future concentration of power which 
had been a chief weakness. The governor was 
given a separate identity and the judiciary 
independence. . , ^ \ 

The convention then proceeded to the third 
article which related to the Legislature. 16 The 
committee's plan of annual sessions alternately 
at Hartford and New Haven was at first rejected, 
but on reconsideration accepted. The change 
was advisable, for it meant an economy in time 
and money. A single session could easily pass 
the necessary legislation. Six-month terms and 
semi-annual elections had been a source of democ- 
racy and protection, but with the growth of the 
party system and increase in population, they were 
becoming of doubtful value. 

An amendment was offered, providing for a re- 
apportionment of town representation. The com- 
mittee report only modified the existing system 
by suggesting that in some towns the representa- 
tion should be cut down to one member. Fair- 
child would give towns under 2,500 people one 
representative and those over, two representatives. 

15 Baldwin in New Haven Hist. Soc., Papers, V, 212. 
18 Journal, pp. 22 ff. 



COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION 387 

James Stevens suggested 4,000 as the line of de- 
marcation between large and small towns. Henry 
and Nathaniel Terry were impressed with the justice 
of the principle, but opposed its adoption on grounds 
of expediency. As there were only forty-four 
towns with a population over 2,500, and seventy- 
six under, the Assembly would be cut down to 
one hundred and sixty-four members. Using 
"4,000" would cut the representation down to one 
hundred and twenty-four, as there were but four 
towns whose population was above that figure. One 
of these was Stamford which Stevens represented. 
Conservatism ruled. The small towns had no 
intention of passing a "self-denying ordinance/' 
Yet such a re-apportionment was badly needed, 
and every future year up to the very present has 
increased the injustice of the system of representa- 
tion. 17 Pocket- borough conditions, noticeable in 
1790, were becoming marked by 1820, because of 
the shifting of population toward the larger cities. 18 
The privilege, which the committee draft gave the 
General Assembly to reduce the representation in 
some cases, was struck out by a vote of 112 to 72. 
This vote was itself an example of small-town 
tyranny. New towns, it was agreed, should only 
have one representative. Yet old towns, from 
which the new town should be formed, were to 

17 Baldwin in New Haven Hist. Soc, Papers, V, 228 ff.; Frank Put- 
nam, "What's the matter with New England?" in New Eng. Mag. (N. 
S.), 37: 267-290; M. B. Cary, The Connecticut Constitution. 

18 For instances: Union with 752 people and a tax list of $17,000, 
had as much weight as New Haven with 7,000 population and a list of 
$133,000. Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 301. 



388 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

retain their full representation unless they con- 
sented to its reduction — an unlikely contingency. 

One provision required that all debates be public, 
save when the public good required secrecy. 
McClellan objected to a gallery in the Council 
Chamber because it had not been customary. It 
was a small body, conducting business in an in- 
formal way. Some of its members were plain, un- 
educated men, not orators, but sound counselors. 
If forced to speak before crowded galleries, their 
usefulness would be curtailed. James Lanman 
argued against secrecy. He would not accuse the 
Council. But who knew whether they plotted 
the ruin of the state, engaged in treasonable corre- 
spondence, or only busied themselves in promoting 
the public welfare? He declared: "There should 
be no secrets between the representative and his 
constituents. Why should an agent act with- 
out letting his principal know what he was doing?" 
The result was that the provision was retained in 
the constitution, and the new galleries in the 
Council were left undisturbed. Another Republic- 
an plank was secured. 

The Senate, as the Council was rechristened, 
was to consist of twelve members according to the 
committee's draft, with the provision that the 
General Assembly could within two years after 
the next census increase the number to twenty- 
one, and district the state. Regarded as radical, 
this called forth great opposition. On a vote, 
it was lost by forty-five to one hundred and thirty- 
six. Tread well's motion to include the governor 



COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION 389 

and lieutenant governor in the Council found only 
fifty-six supporters. Timothy Pitkin with sound 
arguments advised against allowing the General 
Assembly to determine the number. Other state 
constitutions had definitely limited the number 
of their senators. If the state was to be districted, 
he believed that the districts should be defined in 
the constitution, not by the legislators. Judge 
Edwards concurred. This should not be left a 
bone of contention between the people and the 
Legislature. Alexander Wolcott voiced similar 
sentiments. Moses Warren moved that the num- 
ber be increased to twenty, elected by districts. 
On a division, his motion only commanded forty- 
eight votes. Motions to fix the number of senators 
at sixteen and fourteen both failed. Finally it 
was decided that the number of senators should 
remain as of old and that they should be elected 
at large. 19 In a later session Alexander Wolcott 
moved for election by districts, losing by 68 to 
115. This was a keen disappointment to all the 
old Republicans who had long called for a demo- 
cratic districting of the state. 20 

Other sections were approved readily. Each 
House was made the judge of its own members, 
discipline and rules. Votes were to be publicly 
canvassed by the treasurer, secretary, and comp- 
troller. Each House was to keep a journal, pub- 
lish proceedings and take yea and nay votes on de- 

19 Roger Welles (Conn. Mag., V, 162) compares the Assembly with 
its two delegates from every town, regardless of wealth or population, 
with the national Senate, leaving the state senate the popular chamber. 

20 Journal, pp. 57-59. 



390 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

mand of a fifth of the members. The usual freedom 
from arrest during the session and while journey- 
ing back and forth was confirmed, as well as im- 
munity for remarks made in debate. The House 
of Representatives was empowered to select its 
speaker and clerks. A majority was to constitute 
a quorum in either House. In case of a tie vote 
for senators, decision was to rest with the Lower 
House. 

Article 4 dealt with the executive department. 21 
In its reported plans the committee incorporated 
certain Republican principles, which were accepted 
by the convention. It was provided that the 
electors (not freemen) should meet in April in 
town meeting and vote for the governor, lieutenant 
governor, secretary and treasurer. The ballots 
were to be counted publicly, the result declared 
by the town moderator and certified in a report 
by the town clerk to the secretary of state. The 
votes should then be canvassed by the treasurer, 
comptroller, and secretary in the case of governor 
or lieutenant governor, and by the secretary and 
comptroller in case of the treasurer, etc., and then 
reported to the General Assembly on the first day 
of its session. The General Assembly would then 
announce the result. In case no man received a 
majority, both Houses in joint session selected with- 
out debate and by ballot one of the two highest. 
This enactment did away with the joint committee 
of both Houses as the canvasser of votes, as well as 

21 Journal, pp. 35 ff. See Baldwin in New Haven Hist Soc, Papers 
V, 215-216. 



COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION 391 

the secret counting of votes. Henceforth there 
could be no charge of corruption in counting, 
or in the destruction of ballots afterward. 

The governor, it was provided, should be an 
elector of thirty years of age, although the con- 
servative committee had recommended thirty-five 
years. The same qualifications held for the lieu- 
tenant governor who would act as governor in 
case of the latter 's absence, resignation, death, or 
refusal to serve. The governor's salary, as well 
as the salaries of the lieutenant governor, senators, 
and representatives, was left a subject of legislation, 
but not dependent on annual votes. This in itself 
made the governor more independent. He was em- 
powered to act as captain-general of the militia 
save when in federal service. This proviso was 
seriously objected to by Federalist writers, but 
defended by Republicans as rendering impossible 
another disgraceful militia struggle. 

The governor could call on departmental heads 
for reports, and was expected to inform the General 
Assembly on all state matters, and recommend 
legislation. In case of a failure to agree on a date 
of adjournment, the governor was allowed to ad- 
journ the chambers to a stated day. He was 
responsible for the faithful execution of the laws. 
He signed and sealed all commissions. The com- 
mittee favored an extensive right of reprieve, 
which the convention limited by excepting im- 
peachment cases and subjecting all others to re- 
view by the next session of the Legislature. A 
slight power of suspensive veto was allowed by a vote 



392 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

of 127 to 52. Any bill after passing both Houses 
was submitted to the governor for approval, and 
then to the secretary for promulgation. If the 
governor returned the bill unsigned to the House 
of origin within three working days, it must 
again be passed by both Houses when it would 
become law without the governor's signature. 

While the governor's powers were still slight 
as compared to later American policy, they marked 
a great extension over those previously held by 
the chief executive. The governor was no longer 
feared, but as the head of an independent execu- 
tive occupied a position of power as well as honor. 

The lieutenant governor, like the Vice-President 
of the United States, was made the presiding officer 
of the Senate. As such, he had the privilege of 
debate when the body sat as a committee of the 
whole, and a vote in case of a tie. The secretary 
was the recorder of documents, the keeper of the 
seal, and the custodian of legislative acts and 
orders. Further duties might be imposed by law. 
The treasurer assisted the secretary and comp- 
troller in canvassing the vote and was responsible 
for the state moneys, disbursing them according 
to law on warrants registered by the comptroller. 
The comptroller, an annual appointee of the Legis- 
lature, was commissioned to settle and adjust public 
debts, prescribe the mode of keeping accounts, and 
act as an ex-officio auditor. The recent legislation 
providing that a statement of all receipts, payments, 
funds and debts, should be published from time to 
time, was incorporated as a matter of course. The 



COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION 393 

status of these officers was scarcely modified by 
the constitution save in connection with the count- 
ing of the vote. Their duties, however, were de- 
fined so that they were generally known. 

Sheriffs were to be appointed as formerly by the 
General Assembly and were subject to its removal. 
They were bonded for the faithful performance 
of duties defined by law. In case of a vacancy, an 
appointment could be made by the governor to hold 
until the next session. 

The committee reported a plan for the perma- 
nence of the judiciary. 22 Embodying Wolcott's 
inaugural suggestion, it was the product of the 
keenest legal minds of Connecticut. The judicial 
power was defined as invested in a supreme court 
of errors, a superior court, and such inferior courts 
as the General Assembly might establish. The 
justices of the peace as well as the judges of the 
various courts were to be appointed by the General 
Assembly in such number as the work of the di- 
verse counties required. Their powers and juris- 
diction were to be defined by statute. Supreme 
court and superior court judges were to retain 
office during good behavior or until the retire- 
ment age of seventy years. They were made re- 
sponsible through impeachment or removal by the 
governor on address of two- thirds of both Houses. 
The committee herein incorporated the best princi- 
ples of the various judicial systems, while retain- 
ing the essentials of the old organization. They 

22 Journal, pp. 39 ff., 89-90. See Reasons for an Independent Judici- 
ary in Conn. Journal, Aug. 4, 1818. 



394 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

guarded against another Jeffersonian experience with 
a reactionary, hostile judiciary, by making use of the 
British method of address, which was in vogue in 
some of the other states. This would enable the 
Legislature to eliminate a judge who was out of har- 
mony with the time. No article, which the com- 
mittee reported, better evidenced their construc- 
tive ability. 

This section did not pass without several tests 
of strength. Alexander Wolcott proposed an 
amendment which would have meant the retention 
of the yearly appointments. He felt that it was a 
novel doctrine for which the people were not ready. 
He did not believe that it would raise appointees 
above partisan motives and influence ; nor could he 
understand why a judge more than any other 
officer should hold for good behavior. In England, 
it might be well, for it enabled a judge to oppose 
an extension of the prerogative. Judicial functions 
were more important than those of representatives. 
But who would make the latter independent? 
Judges should be just as responsible to the people. 
Henry Terry, a Federalist, argued that the experience 
of other states should have weight. There were no 
complaints of the judicial tenure where this prin- 
ciple was in force. Even in Connecticut the formal 
reappointment of judges had the effect of giving 
the judiciary permanence. In states like Rhode 
Island and Vermont, where the judiciary is depend- 
ent, complaints of partisan judges are rife. The 
same conditions might prevail under rotation in 
Connecticut. A permanency would serve the 



COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION 395 

people as much as in England, for it would safe- 
guard them from a legislative, if not a regal 
prerogative. Root spoke in accord with Terry. 
While Nathan Smith of the Toleration group 
did not question Wolcott's motive, he was sur- 
prised that one could believe "that a judiciary 
deriving their existence from the Legislature; de- 
pending on the will of that body for their support, 
and that of their families ; and liable to be removed 
without cause, and cast destitute upon the world, 
if they do not execute its mandates, however op- 
pressive or unconstitutional, will stand as an inde- 
pendent umpire between man and man and ad- 
minister justice." The two-thirds majority of 
both Houses was a sufficient protection. When a 
judge lost the people's confidence, his removal would 
not be difficult. Again, the Legislature would 
have a bridle in their control of judicial salaries. 
Jefferson in the Virginia constitutional conven- 
tion had argued for this principle. With a touch 
of cynicism, he suggested, Jefferson did not dis- 
regard the people's liberties. In all American 
constitutions, in which this or similar clauses were 
in effect, practice bore out the views of jurists, 
that an independent judiciary was the greatest 
safeguard of liberty. The New Haven Address 
in which the man from Middletown was personally 
interested had demanded an independent judiciary. 
Newspapers, reiterating this demand, had assailed 
the government. Without a just judge, the poor 
man would be oppressed and the minority party 
deprived of its chief protection. He prayed that 



396 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

"political considerations should never enter the 
Temple of Justice, — Justice would flee from such 
unhallowed ground." His argument struck the 
mark. It displayed in a glaring light the incon- 
sistencies of some of the radical Republicans. 
Yet political reasons explain the attitude, not of 
Smith, one of the most learned lawyers, but of 
some of the reactionary Federalists. 

Treadwell declared that, if the committee's re- 
port was accepted, this would be the corner-stone 
and glory of Connecticut, as it had been that of 
England. English judges did not buy or sell 
justice. A permanent judiciary would tend to- 
ward learned, uniform decisions consistent with 
precedent. It would add certainty in the law, 
to the satisfaction of enlightened attorneys. Aaron 
Austin reported that for thirty years he had in- 
clined toward just such a change. The question 
of a good-behavior tenure had often been discussed. 
Then, there was less reason for an insistence on 
permanency. He recalled how Ohio had once 
turned out all her judges. 

Alexander Wolcott again spoke in favor of his 
amendment. He voiced astonishment that men, 
who had always depicted the excellence of the 
government, should now be loudest in calling for 
this change. Temperament, not tenure, was the 
test of a true judge. It would be a departure from 
democratic principle of rotation in office. In the 
New Haven convention the subject, he confessed, 
had not been as thoroughly considered. Further- 
more, it was a party business in that instance, when 



COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION 397 

"writhing as they thought under oppression," the 
delegates were for any change, even life judges. 
In answer to the argument that a dependent judge 
would not declare a legislative act unconstitutional, 
Wolcott offered as his opinion that any judge de- 
ciding a law unconstitutional should be expelled. 
He denied that in the United States Supreme Court 
it was anything but an usurped power. As for 
the amount of litigation, that depended solely upon 
the people and lawyers. In England, he begged 
to add that law was so expensive that a poor man's 
only chance was to be dragged into court as victim. 
On a call for the yeas and nays, he found only 
sixty-seven supporters. 

A motion by Moses Warren for a five-year tenure 
was likewise negatived. James Lanman, another 
Democrat, moved for a three-year term. This 
too was defeated by a vote of 98 to 88. James 
Stevens then proposed that the words "during the 
pleasure of the General Assembly" be substituted 
for good behavior, only to be defeated by 105 to 
76. Enoch Burrows, another original Republican, 
in a last attempt endeavored to have struck out 
the two-thirds provision, so that a legislative recall 
would only require a majority vote. 

On the question of the whole section the report, 
with slight verbal modification, was accepted by 
a vote of in to 78. The one hundred and eleven 
included all the Federalists and Tolerationists, 
whereas the seventy-eight were generally Republi- 
cans. It was evident that the moderate Republi- 
cans, liberal Federalists and Tolerationists con- 



398 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

trolled the convention. The "Revolution" was 
essentially the work of the independent voter 
rather than of the Republican party. 

It is not difficult to understand the Federalist 
support of this measure, for all along men like 
Zephaniah Swift and President Dwight had pointed 
to the judiciary as the weak spot in the govern- 
ment. The men of unreasoning Federalism had 
not criticised this institution, but the revolution- 
izing of the judiciary had aroused their fears. Since 
the reform party came into power, Calvin Goddard 
and Simeon Baldwin of the superior court had 
been displaced, along with some twenty-five county 
court justices, ten probate judges and, it was 
charged, about six hundred justices of the peace. 
Not until 1 819 were the other Federalist members 
of the superior court retired. 23 These changes 
satisfied the Republican opportunist. Control- 
ling the Legislature, they were supreme. It would 
lead to the belief that Federalist charges of office 
seeking were not in part true, in view of the hesi- 
tancy of Republicans to favor Wolcott's suggestion 
relative to the judiciary. Their obstructive tactics, 
however, did not defeat the independent judiciary. 

23 Courant, July 14, 1818. The Conn. Herald, Sept. 15, believed 
that the late Legislature had been generous to a fault, leaving two- 
thirds of the offices in Federalist hands. Trumbull said, in his Address, 
that with a few exceptions there had been a clean sweep of sheriffs, 
judges of common pleas, justices, probate judges, court clerks and even 
turnpike commissioners. Zephaniah Swift (1801), John Trumbull 
(1801), William Edmond, Nathaniel Smith (1806), James Gould (1816), 
were all retired from the superior court in 1819; Jeremiah Brainerd 
(1806-1829) and Stephen Hosmer (1815-1833) were retained. Sedg- 
wick, Litchfield Bar, p. 2; Loomis and Calhoun, Judicial History, p. 137. 



COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION 399 

The suffrage qualification as adopted in Article 6 
slightly modified the recently enacted law. All 
persons who had been admitted prior to the ratifi- 
cation of the constitution were guaranteed the 
suffrage. The voting privilege was granted to every 
white male citizen of the United States of good 
moral character, who had gained a settlement in 
the state, reached the age of twenty-one, and had 
resided in the town at least six months, providing 
that he possessed within the state a freehold of 
seven dollars a year; or had performed militia 
service within the past twelve-month, if not legally 
excused from such service; or had paid taxes dur- 
ing the past year. 24 On taking the freeman's oath 
he would be made an elector by the clerk and select- 
men of the town. Tread well's motion to strike 
out the militia qualification was defeated, 113 to 
67. A motion to associate, as in the past, the civil 
authorities with the selectmen on the freemen's 
board was defeated by 91 to 82. Virtually this 
meant manhood suffrage. 

Voting privileges were forfeited on conviction 
of bribery, forgery, perjury, duelling, fraudulent 
bankruptcy or theft. Treadwell seems to have 
been responsible for the inclusion of duelling, for 
he had tried to include an anti-duelling provision 
in the bill of rights. Every elector was made 
eligible to any office except as otherwise provided 
in the constitution. In principle this was not new. 
All votes were to be by written ballot. The first 

24 Journal, pp. 46 ff. 



400 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Monday in April was established as election day. 
All freemen were immune from arrest on any civil 
process on their way to and from the polls. To 
prevent disorder at elections, it was ordered that 
laws should be passed prohibiting under adequate 
penalties all undue influence, bribery and tumul- 
tuous conduct. The disgraceful conduct at the 
late Hartford town meeting had deeply impressed 
those who dreaded a broader suffrage. 

The seventh article dealing with religion was one 
of the greatest importance. 25 With this omitted, 
the constitution would not have been approved 
by the dissenter or the ardent Republican. In 
this separation of Congregationalism from the 
state lay their chief interest. Baptist resolu- 
tions and petitions, passed and circulated while 
the convention was in session, had threatened 
that a constitution, failing to embody their views on 
religious toleration, would not command their 
support. 26 This had an effect, especially as the 
Methodists were known to be of like mind. The 
views of these dissenting elements had become the 
vital part of the Tolerationists' political philosophy. 
Wolcott had expressed this principle in his address 
to the General Assembly, so that on this question 
the Tolerationists stood committed. 

The drafting of this article was assigned by the 
committee to Gideon Tomlinson and Joshua Stowe, 

25 Journal, pp. 49 ff. 

26 Resolutions of Baptist Convention at Hartford in Mercury, Aug. 
11, 1818; for other Baptist and Methodist resolves, see Mercury, Aug. 
25, Courant, Aug. 11, 1818; Greene, Religious Liberty, p. 486. 



COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION 401 

two Jeffersonian Republicans. 27 Their report 
closely followed Wolcott's wording: 

(1) It being the right and duty of all men to worship 
the Supreme Being, the Great Creator and Preserver of the 
universe, in the mode most consistent with the dictates of 
their consciences; no person shall be compelled to join or 
support, nor by law be classed with, or associated to any 
congregation, church or religious association. And each 
and every society or denomination of Christians in this 
State, shall have and enjoy the same and equal powers, 
rights and privileges; and shall have power and authority 
to support and maintain the Ministers or Teachers of their 
respective denominations, and to build and repair houses 
for public worship, by a tax on the members of their respec- 
tive societies only, or in any other manner. 

(2) If any person shall choose to separate himself from 
the society or denomination of Christians, to which he may 
belong, and shall leave a written notice thereof with the 
clerk of such society, he shall thereupon be no longer liable for 
any future expenses, which may be incurred by said society. 

It has been said that this article was drawn up by 
Rev. Asahel Morse, a Baptist preacher represent- 
ing Suffield. Such an assertion appears groundless. 28 
Morse offered a substitute section for the bill of 
rights, which had been rejected: 

That rights of conscience are inalienable; that all persons 
have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty 
God according to their own consciences; and no person shall 
be compelled to attend any place of worship, or contribute 
to the support of any minister, contrary to his own choice. 

While his substitute did not bear any more simi- 
larity to the wording adopted by the committee 

27 William Hungerford, one of the committee, so informed Trumbull. 
Historical Notes, p. 57, footnote. 

28 Burrage, History of the Baptists, pp. 132-133; Trumbull, Historical 
Notes, p. 57; Greene, Religious Liberty, p. 490. 



402 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

than many Baptist resolutions, the principle was 
the same. The assertion of his authorship can 
be accredited only to a sectarian desire to assume 
the whole credit for the inclusion of the religious 
toleration clause. Morse at best was more of a 
politician than preacher, thereby violating the very 
principle of which he was the reputed standard 
bearer. 

The principle of voluntary support was embodied, 
while at the same time the tithe system of Con- 
gregationalists and Episcopalians was legalized. 
Freedom of conscience was guaranteed to all men, 
but equality of rights only to Christians. It com- 
pletely separated church and state in such a way 
that it would practically cause the temporary de- 
struction of the societies. This the Congrega- 
tionalists of the convention would not suffer. 

The article was hotly contested by the Federalist 
leaders. Stowe, who was not afraid of a dissolution 
of the old societies, declared that "if this section 
is altered in any way, it will curtail the great prin- 
ciples for which we contend." On being submitted, 
the first section was affirmed by 103 to 86 votes. 
A motion to strike out the second section was lost 
by 84 to 105. These votes exactly register the 
relative strength of the parties, and measure the 
power of the intrenched minority. Treadwell 
agreed that it might be well to permit any mode 
of worship, but he would not draft such a principle 
in the constitution. It might even be interpreted 
to cover heathenish image worship, like that of the 
ancients. 



COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION 403 

Nathaniel Terry submitted two amendments to 
the first section which were readily affirmed without 
a vote. One provided that every person belong- 
ing to a located society remained a member until 
his connection had been legally dissolved. Accord- 
ing to the other amendment, a tithe could only be 
laid by a majority of the legal voters in a legally 
announced society meeting. These amendments 
were regarded as necessary to prevent an immediate 
demoralization, for the Congregationalists actually 
feared that, the legal ties removed, numbers of 
their brethren, especially young men, would evade 
their society tax. The easy passage of these 
amendments can be ascribed to Episcopalian 
influence. 

Despite the leadership of Tread well, Terry and 
Pitkin, Federalists " could not prevent the com- 
plete severance of church from state, the consti- 
tutional guaranty of the rights of conscience, or 
the recognition of the absolute equality before the 
law of all Christian denominations." 29 Republican 
and sectarian had forced the hand of the Standing 
Order. 

The article on education, with minor verbal 
changes, was accepted as submitted by the com- 
mittee. 30 The charter of Yale as modified by an 
agreement with the corporation in pursuance of the 
act of the General Assembly of 1792 was confirmed. 
The school fund was declared a perpetual fund 

29 Trumbull, Historical Notes, p. 56. 

30 Journal, p. 54; Baldwin " Ecclesiastical Constitution of Yale 
College," in New Haven Hist. Soc, Papers, III, 415. 



404 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

whose income could be used only in supporting and 
encouraging the public or common schools, and never 
diverted to other uses. Certainly this was not 
unfriendly legislation on the part of men who 
had been arraigned as plotters against the college 
and schools. 

The ninth article dealing with impeachment was 
accepted as recommended by the committee. 31 
It was very similar to that provided for in the 
national constitution. 

The tenth article included important general 
provisions of diverse nature. An oath of office 
for executive officials and members of the General 
Assembly was formulated. Annual town meetings 
were provided for the election of selectmen and 
police officers. A long section guaranteed the 
rights and status of all existing corporations. 
All judicial officers were to hold until the follow- 
ing June, unless they resigned or were removed 
according to law. The secretary and treasurer 
were to serve until their successors were selected. 
Military officers were to continue until regularly 
removed. All laws not inconsistent with the con- 
stitution were to be in force until their expiration 
or repeal. These were temporary provisions in 
order to smooth the transition from the old to the 
new government. The validity of all bonds, debts, 
contracts, personal or corporate, suits, actions and 
the like was guaranteed. This clause set at ease 
those who feared or who gave credence to Federalist 
claims that a constitution would mean an over- 

31 Journal, p. 54. 



COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION 405 

throw, a repudiation of debts, and an invalidation 
of all legal agreements. A fourth section ordained 
that no judge of the superior or supreme courts, 
member of Congress, federal office holder, state 
treasurer, secretary or comptroller, sheriff or deputy 
sheriff should be eligible to the General Assembly. 
Henceforth this body could not be described as a 
set of office holders, or its independence questioned. 32 
Article eleven, describing the method of amend- 
ment, was adopted as reported. Whenever a 
majority of the House deemed it necessary to 
alter the constitution, they might propose such 
alterations as they saw fit. These were to be 
published and continued until the next General 
Assembly when, if they were approved by two- 
thirds of both Houses, copies were to be sent by 
the secretary to the various town clerks who were 
to submit them to the electors in freemen's meet- 
ing. If the proposals were approved by a majority 
vote, they became part of the organic law. 33 

32 A motion by McClellan, that no federal officer should be eligible 
to a judgeship, was defeated. A proposal that "no clergyman or 
preacher of the gospel of any denomination, shall be capable of holding 
any civil office in this State, or of being a member of either branch of 
the Legislature, while he continues in the exercise of the pastoral or 
clerical functions," was laid on the table. Journal, pp. 26, 54, 55. 

33 Journal, p. 55. The method of amendment was made intention- 
ally difficult. Up to 1891, Judge Baldwin points out that but 28 out 
of 96 proposed amendments passed. While in his opinion most of the 
amendments have been of negative value, the difficulty in driving 
them through has made for a permanence of the constitution, to the 
point oi weakness. Experience has belied the prediction of the con- 
temporary Scottish traveller. New Haven Hist. Soc, Papers, V, 227, 
242-245; Loomis and Calhoun, Judicial History, p. 58. 

Duncan, after stopping a few days in New Haven, wrote: "It does 



406 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

September 12 and 14 were given over to a con- 
sideration of the whole constitution. 34 A last 
futile stand was made by the radical Republicans 
to district the state and render worthless the judi- 
ciary clauses. The independent judiciary was 
secured by a vote of 114 to 53. Timothy Pitkin 
moved to strike out the whole clause on religion, 
changing his motion to refer to the first section. 
On a call for a yea and nay vote, it was defeated 
by 114 to 79. A similar motion with regard to the 
second section was defeated by 114 to 72. These 
votes and motions displayed Congregational- 
Federalism at its worst. Nathaniel Terry made a 
last assault on the single session plan, but the 
Assembly was opposed to two annual sessions. 
Lest the radical and reactionary elements continue 
the discussion indefinitely, Pierrepont Edwards's 
resolution calling for a final vote on the constitution 

however seem ominous of evil, that so little ceremony is at present used 
with the constitutions of the various States. The people of Connecti- 
cut, not contented with having prospered abundantly under the old 
system, have lately assembled a convention, composed of delegates 
from all parts of the country, in which the former order of things has 
been condemned entirely, and a completely new constitution manu- 
factured; which, among other things, provides for the same process 
being again gone through, as soon as the profanum vidgus takes it into 
its head to desire it. A sorry legacy the British Constitution would 
be to us, if it were at the mercy of a meeting of delegates, to be sum- 
moned whenever a majority of the people take a fancy for a new one; 
and I am afraid that if the Americans continue to cherish a fondness 
for such repairs, the highlandman's pistol with its new stock, lock and 
barrel, will bear a close resemblance to what is ultimately produced. 
This is universal suffrage in its most pestilent character." Travels, 
II, 335. 

34 Journal, pp. 61 ff. 



COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION 407 

at 5 p.m., September 15, was adopted. The 
cloture went into effect; and the constitution as 
returned by the engrossing committee was read 
through and approved by a vote of 134 to 61. 

This was not a strictly party vote. 35 There were 
at least seventy-one Federalists in the conven- 
tion, so that some ten or eleven must have voted 
for the constitution. A few more must have so voted, 
for several Republicans voted "nay." Nathaniel 
Terry, Henry Terry, Judge Mitchell, William Todd, 
John McClellan and R. Pierpont were among 
some of the best known Federalists who favored 
the new instrument of government. James 
Stevens, Robert Fairchild, the assistant secretary, 
and Alexander Wolcott who proved an obstruc- 
tionist in his consistent voting against the more 
moderate of his party, were the most prominent 
Republicans who opposed the constitution. 36 
All of the Federalists who lived in the past voted 
against the constitution as a sacred duty. In 
general the members of both parties followed their 
party counsels on this question which alone marked 
the division between parties. 

» Cf. Trumbull, Historical Notes, p. 58. 

36 John M. Niles of the Hartford Times wrote: "The deliberations 
and conclusions of a majority of the convention were not such as to 
commend themselves to the enlarged comprehension, the progressive 

republican mind, and high expectations of Wolcott The 

Constitution as presented, he discovered as defective, as unjust, as 
founded on no basis of republican equality, as avoiding in important 
particulars accountability and responsibility, as a mere embodiment of 
the charter of 1662, which, though liberal in its day, was not adapted 
to present circumstances and the changed condition of the country 
and times in 1818." Stiles, Windsor, p. 835. 



408 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

The chart will give an idea of the sectionalism 
of the vote, as it shows how the delegates of each 
town voted. Seventy-six towns were represented 
by men in favor of the constitution. The dele- 
gates of thirty-two towns were opposed; of eleven 
towns divided. The delegate from one town 
failed to vote. 

It was then resolved that the constitution should 
be signed by the president, countersigned by the 
clerks, and deposited with the secretary of state. 
Seven hundred copies were ordered to be distrib- 
uted to the town clerks who were to submit the 
constitution to the electors on the first Monday 
in October. It was finally agreed that a majority 
vote of the electors should suffice for ratification, 
after motions for three-fifths, four-sevenths, and five- 
ninths had failed. A slight amendment was made 
the next day, September 16, by which the powers 
of government were continued in the hands of the 
governor, lieutenant governor and General As- 
sembly until the following May, in order that there 
be no interregnum. A vote of thanks expressed 
the general satisfaction with Governor Wolcott as 
moderator. With that the convention adjourned 
on September 16. 37 

The constitution which resulted from their 
three-weeks deliberation was bound to win the 
support of all fair-minded men. 38 It did not 

37 Journal, pp. 71-72. The Convention cost the state $11,313.25, 
according to the treasury debenture. Mercury, Nov. 10, 1818. 

38 Cf. Baldwin in New Haven Hist. Soc, Papers, V, 227; preface of 
Revised Statutes (1821). 



COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION 409 

satisfy several Republican extremists, nor the 
reactionary third of the members. It was essen- 
tially a compromise, although its principles were 
distinctly those of moderate Republicans. Its 
mere phraseology evidenced the inbred conserva- 
tism of even the so-called liberal members. 
Changes were few, but invariably for the best. 
The old rights of the towns were guaranteed. 
Representation remained the same; the state was 
not districted. The offices remained pretty much 
as of old. Christianity was honored; the quasi- 
legal connection between Congregationalism and 
the state was severed. There was no display 
of anticlericalism ; the one measure aimed at the 
ministry was laid upon the table. Education 
was secured. The powers of government were 
divided ; the judiciary was made independent. In a 
word, the governmental institutions and practices 
of the past were revised, brought up to date, and 
set forth as the organic law of the state, instead of 
being left undetermined in the shadowy back- 
ground of usage and statutory provisions. The 
arrangement of the constitution as a state docu- 
ment is confused, but its language is simple and 
has required little interpretation by the courts. 39 
Such was the constitution submitted to the free- 
men at their town meetings. 

Ratification by the voters remained in doubt 
until the last. So many Democrats were ill 
pleased with the constitution that its acceptance 

s9 The bill of rights has required more interpretation than all other 
articles combined. Loomis and Calhoun, Judicial History, p. 58. 



410 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

depended upon Federalist votes. Some of the 
delegates did not feel called upon to argue its 
merits before their constituents. This was espe- 
cially true of the Federalists, who voted in conven- 
tion in accordance with their own views rather 
than those of their party. Gen. Nathaniel Terry 
used his great political influence to win Federalist 
votes and to swing Hartford for the constitution. 
Seth P. Beers, a leading Tolerationist lawyer, 
thought that Terry did more than any other in- 
dividual to secure its ratification. 40 

Federalists argued that ninety days was a short 
time in which to evolve a system of government, 
breaking so radically with the past. 41 Time enough 
had not been given to its consideration, for it 
must be remembered that under it their chil- 
dren's children must live. This instrument of 
government was drawn in three weeks, by partisans 
in the heat of factional strife. If it was in any 
way moderate, that was due to the watchfulness of 
Federalist leaders. They alone prevented the gerry- 
mandering of the state. It was intimated that 
under the constitution innovations would continue 
until Democrats had their will. Passage by a 
bare majority, they argued, was not right, for it 
left a strong minority with too little protection. 
The militia were advised to look well into a con- 
stitution which in case of war gave so much au- 

40 Trumbull, Historical Notes, p. 59. 

41 The Crisis, p. 16; Courant, Sept. 15, 22, 29, Oct. 6; Conn. Mirror, 
Sept. 21, Oct. 5; Conn. Journal, Sept. 15, 22, Oct. 6, 1818; Trumbull, 
Address, pp. 12 ft. Robbins wrote: "Should it be adopted, I shall view 
the event as a great frown of heaven." Diary, I, 759. 



COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION 411 

thority over them to the federal executive. Hart- 
ford papers charged New Haven leaders with a 
selfish localism in favoring the constitution simply 
because it made New Haven a capital. They 
were charged with already boasting that the city's 
business would increase and property values rise 
twenty-five per cent, and with contending that for 
these reasons property owners and merchants should 
support the constitution. Then, there was an at- 
tempt to capitalize sympathy for Governor Tread- 
well who was said to have been treated unfairly, if 
not worse, by the aggressive majority of the con- 
vention. This may have had considerable influence 
with the old element which Tread well represented. 
The one clause in the constitution, which Federal- 
ists defended, was that establishing an independent 
judiciary, which they could honestly maintain had 
been incorporated because of Federalist support. 

Tolerationists were won by the religious pro- 
visions. Republicans were not as ardent sup- 
porters as one might expect. They were disap- 
pointed in the failure to district the state, a principle 
for which they had long contended. It was not 
done until 1827. They were afraid of the judiciary. 
On the whole, they regarded the constitution as 
better than no constitution. Furthermore, there 
was the amending clause in which they lodged 
future hopes. 42 

October fifth told the tale. A heavy vote was 
cast in all towns; only Burlington failed to make 
a return. For the constitution, there were 13,918 

42 Conn. Herald, New Haven Register, and Mercury — issues of Sept. 29. 



412 



CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 



votes to 12,364, or a majority of 1,554 votes out 
of a total of 26, 282. 43 The closeness of the vote 
is evidence that the constitution did not command 
the full reform electorate. Federalists complained 
that there was no majority, for the state had over 
thirty thousand freemen; and that there were 
more than 1,554 new voters, the purity of whose 
votes was dubious. The returns were made to the 
October session of the General Assembly, which 
declared that the ratified constitution was the 
supreme law of the commonwealth. 44 

The vote by towns is interesting. By looking 
at the chart and comparing the vote with that 
cast in 181 7, it will be seen that in general the 
towns voted according to party. The number of 
bolters or independent voters was seldom suf- 
ficient to throw a Wolcott town against the consti- 

43 Journal (appendix), pp. 117-118; Conn. Journal and Mercury, 
Oct. 13. The following table gives the vote by counties; one town is 
missing in Hartford County, and the town of Litchfield cast a tie vote. 



COUNTIES 


VOTES 


TOWNS 




For 


Against 


For 


Against 


Hartford 


2,234 
2,385 
1,740 
1,836 
1,777 
2,027 
1,051 
868 


2,843 

1,572 

792 

1,019 

1,671 

2,779 

786 

902 


5 

12 
10 
15 
9 
5 
5 
5 


12 


New Haven 


5 


New London 


4 


Fairfield 


2 


Windham 


6 


Litchfield 


16 


Middlesex 


2 


Tolland 


5 








13,918 


12,364 


66 


52 



44 Journal (appendix), pp. 119-121; Conn. Journal, Oct. 13. 




Vote on Constitution by Towns 

Against. 

No vote 1 I 

Tie vote 



COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION 413 

tution. On the other hand, the constitution was 
ratified by towns not in the reformers' list. Fed- 
eralist losses are readily seen along with the more 
state-wide Toleration strength. A comparison 
with the religious chart will make clear the impor- 
tance of the dissenters' vote, for where dissent 
thrived, the town was for ratification. New 
Haven County offered a surprise, in that only 
five of its seventeen towns registered against the 
constitution. The city of New Haven gave a 
two to one vote in favor of the constitution. Ap- 
parently there was some truth in charges that 
selfish localism had won the day. Fairfield and 
New London as dissenting counties gave the 
heaviest majorities for the constitution by towns; 
only six of their thirty-one voted "nay." Litch- 
field and Hartford counties gave heavy Federalist 
majorities, while Tolland went Federalist by a small 
vote. The hostility of the purely agricultural towns 
can only be ascribed to the unreasoning conserva- 
tism of the Connecticut countryman which time has 
scarcely weakened. 

As evidence of the party character of the vote, 
sixteen towns repudiated their delegates who had 
favored the constitution. Of those towns, whose 
delegates were divided in the convention, six re- 
fused to follow Republican extremists in their op- 
position, while the rest failed to support their 
Federalist delegates who had favored the consti- 
tution. 45 

45 The following towns repudiated their delegates who voted no: 
Hartford, East Windsor, Enfield, Granby, Simsbury, Guilford, Lisbon, 



414 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

The adoption of the constitution was a cause 
of satisfaction. Republicans considered it their 
work, and claimed the credit. While not alto- 
gether pleased, they regarded it as a written safe- 
guard of their rights, civil and religious. 46 Its 
adoption brought political quiet, for, as Judge 
Trumbull wrote, it "quieted the minds of those 
who wished for an enlargement of the right of 
suffrage and for greater freedom in religion." 47 

Trumbull, Columbia, Hampton, Lebanon, Norfolk, Plymouth, Rox 
bury, Washington and East Haddam. 

East Hartford, Greenwich, Stratford, Ashford, Middletown and 
Stamford reprimanded the bolting Republicans by voting for the Con- 
stitution. Six towns — Wethersfield, Pomfret, Woodstock, Cornwall, 
Harwinton, and Winchester — whose delegates were divided, voted 
down the constitution. 

46 "There seems to be great rejoicing of Democracy and triumphings 
of the wicked at the adoption of the new constitution. They evidently 
consider it a triumph over righteousness," wrote Robbins. Diary, I, 759. 
The Mercury (October 13) wrote editorially: "Connecticut has now 
a Constitution, founded on sound and liberal principles. The rights of 
all are secured; and the humble Christian is now permitted to worship 
his God without fearing the lash of civil persecution." Barstow in his 
History of New Hampshire (p. 426) wrote that all men of independent 
and enlightened views rejoiced at this sundering of church and state 
in Connecticut. 

47 Judge Trumbull, a displaced judge and despiser of reform, de- 
clared: "The formation and adoption of the new Constitution has 
quieted the minds of those who wished for an enlargement of the right 
of suffrage, and for greater freedom in religion. All male citizens above 
twenty-one years of age may now vote at our elections and the small 
nominal superiority which the Congregationalists had over the other 
denominations, arising solely from their being a majority, is now re- 
moved; and all are placed on a perfect level. Whether these provisions 
are wise or unwise, and whether it was discreet to cause such changes 
in our political institutions, is not now to be questioned. All agree 
that the Constitution must be implicitly obeyed, as the supreme law 
of the land." Address (1819), p. 1. Cf. Church, Historical Address, 
p. 67. 



COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION 415 

The spirit of bitterness aroused by the partisan- 
ship of pamphleteers died down. Men repented 
the violence of the past. As Hollister, who hesi- 
tated to treat this period in 1855, wrote: 

Gradually too most of them [partisans] learned to rev- 
erence the old Charter, for the good it had done during a 
hundred and fifty years of hard and honest service, while 
at the same time they spoke, some loudly, and others in a 
more subdued tone, in praise of the constitution, which 
gave equal rights, ecclesiastical as well as civil, to all inhabit- 
ants of the state. 48 

Right-minded Federalists, even opponents of the 
constitution, counseled its acceptance. The party 
officially condemned the revolution in its mani- 
festoes to the voters, in a vain attempt to make 
an issue of the question. This was impossible. 
The party was dying and the constitution vote 
sounded its knell. 

The years 181 8-1 8 19 witnessed the completion 
of the revolution. 49 Governor Wolcott in October 

48 Connecticut, II, 516. 

49 Church Ms. "In the great revolution which immediately fol- 
lowed the retirement of Governor Smith, and of which his rejection was 
the first great wave, Connecticut abdicated her Christian standing. 
The ancient spirit which had shaped her institutions, and linked her, 
in her corporate capacity, to the throne of the Almighty for almost 
two hundred years, was then expelled, and the State ceased hence- 
forth, to wield power as a religious trust. New and alien principles 
obtained the ascendancy, and the divine life, imbreathed into the Com- 
monwealth, by its godly founders, was no longer the controlling law. 
The multiplication of Christian sects undoubtedly rendered a strict 
adherence to the original constitution both unwise and impossible, but 
could not justify such a total departure from the old foundations. 
Schisms in the Church can never necessitate the apostasy of the State." 
Eulogy in Andrews, John Cotton Smith, p. 40. Tread well's life "involves 



416 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

advised a revision of the laws in conformity with 
the constitution. The code appeared in 182 1. A 
new plan of taxation as suggested by the governor 
and the committee of investigation was adopted. 
Property was henceforth taxed according to its 
value, not its estimated productivity. Poll taxes 
were lessened; burdens were equalized; and pro- 
fessional skill and personal initiative were no 
longer penalized. Agriculturalists were less apt 
to emigrate. In a word, taxes were equalized and 
fairly apportioned. 

Supplementary laws were passed. An act 
provided for the admission of freemen and for the 
canvassing of votes. A new election law was 
passed. A judiciary act followed. School funds 
were ordered apportioned to the districts on the basis 
of children of school age, not on that of taxable 
wealth. Within a short time not only the Epis- 
copalians, but the Methodists had their colleges. 
Marriages were recognized, if performed by other 
than Congregational ministers or those in legally 
established societies or by magistrates. This 
democratic legislation completed the reform 
movement. 

The greatest single result of the reiorm move- 
ment, which culminated in the written consti- 
tution, was after all the severance of the union of 

that of the last days of the Puritan dynasty, and of a revolution which 
although bloodless, and for the most part peaceful, produced a change 
in the political aspect of the Commonwealth as marked and real, as 
those which overturn the most powerful empires." Olmstead, Tread- 
well, pp. 3-4. 



COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION 417 

church and state. 50 The divorce redounded to 
the advantage of both. No longer could there 
be a "religious test" for office holders. Religion 
was made purely voluntary. A man might belong 
to any church or no church; he might contribute 
to the support of religion or not, as he pleased. 
No longer were men legally dissenters or " certifi- 
cate-men." No longer was there a tithe which 
men must pay or, as the New Haven Register 
charged, see even their Bible seized and sold. 51 
Yet religion was not destroyed, as the Standing 
Order had predicted, when the Gospel should be left 
to voluntary support. 

The abolition of the tithe at first embarrassed 
the finances of the Congregational societies, but 
they managed to support their ministry through 
the income from the church and glebe lands early 
donated by the state and never confiscated under 
the plea of separation by the American "Jacobins." 
Moreover, there was a revenue from the rental of 
pews, popular subscriptions, bequests to the 
society fund, and in some parishes dividends 
from bank stock. In an occasional society the 
tithe system was voluntarily retained for a time. 52 

50 Tudor, Letters, p. 93; Wilson, Travels, p. 104; Hetrick, Canterbury, 
p. 8; Peck, Burlington, p. 18; Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, p. 19; Gold, 
Cornwall, p. 135. Cf. Rev. Washington Gladden, "Anti-Papal Panic," 
Harper's Weekly, July 18, 1914. 

51 Conn. Mirror, Oct. 26, 1818. 

52 For financial arrangements, see: Allen, Enfield, pp. 1570 S., 2572, 
2591; Sherman, Naugatuck, p. 11; Baker, Montville, pp. 654-657; Sedg- 
wick, Sharon, pp. 95 n\; Gold, Cornwall, p. 135; Orcutt, Wolcott, p. 91; 
Lamed, Windham County, II, 452; Beardsley, Episcopal Church, II, 64, 
174; Barstow, New Hampshire, pp. 422-424. 



418 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Episcopalian congregations contrived to sustain 
themselves by subscriptions and pew-rentals. 
Methodists and Baptists suffered, as many of their 
members had seceded from the regular societies for 
financial or administrative reasons rather than 
because of religious convictions. Their growth 
slackened. Too often luke-warm members for- 
sook the contribution box even while retaining 
membership in the society. Yet there was little 
real hardship under the voluntary system. 

Morally the Congregational church received a 
stimulus. 53 Men no longer seceded because of 
monetary reasons. The onus of a state church 
was removed. The old charge of a clerical tyr- 
anny lost force. There was still a feeling of social 
superiority on the part of its members, but at any 
rate this had no legal recognition. Hence in the 
future this sect, as all others, had to depend on its 
spiritual force. The reaction against infidelity 
encouraged the revivals of 1818 and the following 
years. 54 A foreign mission school, which had been 
established in Cornwall in 181 7, was thriving. 

63 As Rev. R. C. S. McNeille preached: "But Congregationalism 
has not always been at its best. It was not so when it held onto the 
mechanism of the Standing Order, when in so many influential quar- 
ters it opposed the revivals which began about 1740; .... when 
its members were almost all of them of aristocratic tendencies in their 
pohtics, when it long looked with disfavor upon the use of the lay ele- 
ment in church work One of the strong points of Con- 
gregationalism hereabouts has been its respectability. It has almost 
died of it." One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Association of 
Fairfield, pp. 55-56. 

54 Rev. Joel Ives, Sermon (July 9, 1876), p. 10; Porter, Discourse 
(1820), p. 18; Anderson, Waterbury, pp. 1627-1629; South, Guilford, 
p. 104; Dudley, Cromwell, p. 15. 



COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION 419 

Sunday schools were being established to teach 
the Congregational catechism which had been 
driven out of the public schools. 55 Noah Porter 
declared in 1821 that no year had been so favor- 
able or more prolific of good results. 56 Later Con- 
gregational authorities agree that in the end the 
separation benefited the church. Certainly no one 
will maintain that the interests of the state were 
prejudiced. 

Lyman Beecher who so dreaded a voluntarily 
supported ministry lived to see his fears refuted. 
His son, the editor of his autobiography, described 
the sadness of the Beecher family 57 from whom a 
"perfect wail arose" when they had been informed 
by John P. Brace of the Democratic success: 

I remember seeing father the day after the election, 
sitting on one of the old-fashioned rush-bottomed kitchen 
chairs, his head drooping on his heart, and his arms hanging 
down. "Father," said I, "what are you thinking of?" He 
answered solemnly, "The Church of God." . . . . It 

was a time of great depression and suffering It 

was as dark a day as ever I saw. The odium thrown upon 
the ministry was inconceivable. The injury done to the 
cause of Christ, as we then supposed, was irreparable. For 
several days I suffered what no tongue can tell for the best 
thing that ever happened to the State of Connecticut. It cut 
the churches loose from dependence on state support. It 
threw them wholly on their own resources and on God. 
. . . . They say ministers have lost their influence; the 
fact is, they have gained. By voluntary efforts, societies, 
missions, and revivals, they exert a deeper influence than 
ever they could by queues and shoe buckles, and cocked 
hats and gold-headed canes. 

55 Kilbourne, Sketches, p. 92; Gold, Cornwall, p. 29; McLaughlin 
Sharon, p. 15; Field, Middlesex, pp. 53, 62. 

56 Thanksgiving Sermon (1821). 

57 Autobiography, I, 60, 344, 392-406. 



APPENDIX 



Governors, 1776-1820 

Jonathan Trumbull, Sr 1769-1784 

Matthew Griswold 1784-1786 

Samuel Huntington 1786-1796 

Oliver Wolcott, Sr 1796-1798 

Jonathan Trumbull, Jr 1798-1809 

John Treadwell 1809-1811 

Roger Griswold 1811-1812 

John Cotton Smith 1812-1817 

Oliver Wolcott 1817-1827 



The Council 

Members and their terms of service, 1776-1820 



J. Hamblin . . . 
E.Sheldon... 

E. Dyer 

J. Huntington. 
W. Pitkin.... 
R. Sherman. . . 
A. Davenport. 

J. Spencer 



O. Wolcott 

S. Huntington . 
R. Law 

W. Williatais... 

T. Hosmer 

O. Ellsworth... 

B. Huntington. 

A. Adams 

J.P.Cook 

S.M.Mitchell. 

W. Hillhouse.. 

J. Wadsworth . 

J. Sturges 

J. Treadwell.. 

E. Wolcott 

W. S.Johrison. 

J. Chester 

J. Strong 

J. Root 

J. Hillhouse . . . 
R. Newberry. . 

H.Swift 

J. Chandler. . . 
J. Davenport. . 
A. Larned .... 
J. Ingersoll. . . 

T. Reeve 

A.Miller 



1776-1785 
1776-1779 
1776-1784 

1776-1781 
1776-1786 
1776-1786 
1776-1784 
1776-1778 
1779-1786 
1787-1789 
1776-1787 
1776-1783 
1776-1787 
1776-1780 
1784-1803 
1778-1781 
1780-1787 
1781-1790 
1791-1793 
1781-1790 
1784-1803 
1784-1786 
1787-1793 
1785-1809 
1786-1788 
1795-1801 
1786-1789 
1786-1799 
1786-1790 
1787-1789 
1788-1792 
1789-1791 
1789-1790 
1789-1791 
1790-1809 
1790-1802 
1790-1795 
1790-1797 
1791-1792 
1792-1798 
1792-1793 
1793-1794 



T. Grosvenor 


.. 1793-1802 


A. Austin 


.. 1794-1818 


T. Seymour 


.. 1793-1803 


D.Daggett 


/ 1797-1805 
• \ 1809-1814 


J. Brace 


/ 1798-1799 
• 1 1802-1820 


N. Smith 


.. 1799-1805 


Z. Swift 


/ 1799-1800 
• \ 1801-1802 


J.Allen 


. .. 1800-1806 


O.Ellsworth 


.. 1802-1808 


C. Goodrich 


. .. 1802-1809 


W. Edmond 


. .. 1803-1806 


F. Goodrich 


/ 1803-1808 
• • \ 1809-1818 


S. T. Hosmer 


. .. 1805-1816 


M. Griswold 


. .. 1805-1818 


H. Champion 


. .. 1806-1818 


C. Goddard 


. .. 1808-1816 


I. Beers 


. .. 1808-1809 


Theodore D wight. . 


... 1809-1816 


J. Canfield 


. .. 1809-1815 


J.C.Smith 


. .. 1809-1810 


F. Wolcott 


. .. 1810-1820 


R. M. Sherman. . . 


. .. 1814-1818 


S.W.Johnson 


. .. 1815-1818 


S. B. Sherwood 


. .. 1816-1817 


W. Perkins 


. .. 1816-1818 


N.B.Benedict.... 


. .. 1816-1818 


A. Chapman 


. .. 1817-1819 


E. Perkins 


. .. 1817-1820 


W. Bristol 


. .. 1818-1820 


E. Boardman 


... 1818-1820 


D. Tomlinson 


. .. 1818-1820 


S. Wells 


. .. 1818-1820 


J.S.Peters 


. .. 1818-1820 


J. Lanman 


. .. 1818-1819 


E. Burrows 


. .. 1818-1820 


P.Webb 


. .. 1818-1820 


J. Stowe 


. .. 1819-1820 


D.Hill 


. .. 1819-1820 



420 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

I. NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS 

Contemporary newspapers have been one of the 
chief sources of material for this study. May 
Humphreys in his List of Newspapers in the Yale 
University Library (New Haven: 191 6) enumerates, 
all told, twenty-eight journals of which all but 
thirteen had an ephemeral existence. In 1818 
there were about fifteen newspapers, besides the 
Religious Intelligencer, with an aggregate circula- 
tion of fifteen thousand copies. First, there was 
the Connecticut Courant (1764) published in Hart- 
ford by Hudson and Goodwin, strongly patriotic 
during the War, and intensely Federalist in the 
after-period. Among the Republican papers the 
American Mercury (Hartford) was the foremost. 
It was founded in 1784 by Joel Barlow and Elisha 
Babcock, the latter becoming its editor and owner 
in 1786. The Connecticut Mirror, founded in 1809 
at Hartford, represented an extreme wing of the 
Federalist party, just as the Columbian Register 
under the editorship of Joseph Barber of New 
Haven (1812) did in the Republican organization. 
In 1 81 7, F. D. Bolles and J. M. Niles of Hartford 
established as a Tolerationist organ The Times. 
The Connecticut Herald (1803) and the Connecticut 
Journal (1767), both of New Haven, were Federalist 
journals of secondary rank. The Connecticut Ga- 
zette of New London, the Litchfield Monitor, the 

421 



422 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Norwich Courier, the Middlesex Gazette, and the 
moderately liberal Phoenix or Windham Herald 
complete the list of important weekly papers. Dur- 
ing the Embargo days America's Friend of Stoning- 
ton had considerable vogue among administration 
supporters. Niles' Weekly Register of Baltimore 
has been of considerable value after 1811. News- 
papers outside of the state have only been referred 
to when quoted through the Courant or Mercury. 
Among the reviews which have been used are: 
North American Review, vols. 1-9 (1815-1819); 
The General Repository and Review, vols. 1-4, Cam- 
bridge: 1 812; The Portfolio, vols. 1-6, 3d series, 
vols. 5-6, Philadelphia: 181 6-1 81 8; The Athenceum, 
vols. 1-5, Boston: 1817-1819; The Methodist Maga- 
zine, vols. 1-2, New York: 181 8; and the Connecti- 
cut Quarterly (vols. 1-6 for 1 895-1 900), later 
known as the Connecticut Magazine (vols. 7-1 1 for 
1901-1907). 

2. SERMONS AND PAMPHLETS 

The following list of sermons and contemporary 
pamphlets comprises only those actually used and 
found valuable. 

Address of the General Association of Connecticut to Con- 
gregational ministers and churches of the State on im- 
portance of united endeavors to revive Gospel Discipline. 
Litchfield: 1808. 

Andrews, Ethan A. : Remarks on Present State of Agri- 
cultural Science in Hartford County. Hartford: 1819. 

Atwater, Rev. Lyman H. : A Tribute to the Memory of 
the Hon. Roger Minott Sherman, being the discourse 
preached at his funeral, Jan. 2, 1845. New Haven: 
1845. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 423 

Backus, Rev. Azel: Sermon, delivered by himself at his 
induction, Dec. 3, 181 2. Sermon at the funeral of 
Gen. Oliver Wolcott. Litchfield: 1797. 

Backus, Rev. Charles: Century Sermon. Hartford: 1801. 

Backus, Simon: Dissertation on the Right and Obligation 
of the Civil Magistrate to take care of the Interest of 
Religion and provide for its Support. Pp. 34. 
Middletown: 1804. 

Argues for compulsory support of religion and for toleration 
to all save Catholics, atheists, or those not believing in future 
punishment. 

Bacon, Rev. Leonard: Thirteen Historical Discourses- 
New Haven: 1839. 

Banking and the Shaving Operations of Directors, six num- 
bers on, with General Remarks. By Corrector. Pp. 
24. New Haven: 1817. 

Baptist Association, Minutes of Hartford, held at Stratford, 
Oct. 1814. Pp. 11. Middletown: 1814. Annual Re- 
ports of the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions for U. S. 
Proceedings of the General Convention of Baptists in 
U. S., at their first triennial meeting. Philadelphia: 
1817. 

Baptist, A True: The Age of Inquiry, or Reason and Reve- 
lation in Harmony with each other operating against 
all Tyranny and Infidelity — to which is added some 
remarks upon the report of the committee of the legis- 
lature of Connecticut, upon the Baptist Petition, pre- 
sented at their session, May, 1802. Hartford: 1804. 

Barber, Rev. Daniel : The History of My Own Times. Pp. 48. 
Washington: 1827. 

Barlow, Joel: Oration delivered in Hartford at the meeting 
of the Connecticut Society of Cincinnati, July 4, 1787. 
Pp. 20. Hartford: 1787. 

Beach, Rev. James: Immoral and Pernicious Tendency 
of Error. Hartford: 1806. 

Beecher, Rev. Lyman: The Practicability of Suppressing 
Vice by Means of Societies instituted for that purpose, 
delivered before the Moral Society of East Hampton, 
L. I., Sept. 21, 1803. New London: 1804. 

Sermon, The Remedy for Duelling, delivered before 
the Presbytery of Long Island, April 16, 1806. Pp. 48. 
Reprint. New York: 1809. 



424 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

The Government of God Desirable. New York: 
1809. 

A Reformation of Morals Practicable and Indispen- 
sable — a sermon delivered at New Haven, Oct. 27, 181 2. 
Pp. 38. New Haven; 1813. 

Sermon delivered at Installation of Rev. John Keyes 
at Wolcott, Conn., Sept. 1814. Andover: 1815. 

Beers, William P. H.: An Address to the Legislature and 
People of the State of Connecticut, on the subject of 
dividing the State into Districts for the Election of 
Representatives in Congress. Pp. 37. New Haven: 
1791. 

Bible Society: Reports for 1810, 181 1, 181 2, 1813, 1814, 
1815, 1816, and 1817. 

Bird, Rev. Jonathan: Discourse delivered to the Freemen 
collected in the Second Society in Saybrook, April 11, 
1803. Middletown: 1803. 

First given in Berlin, April 7, 1800. Aroused great political 
warmth as an attack on Republican rule. The title page cited 
Solomon: "When the righteous are in authority the people re- 
joice; but when the wicked beareth rule the people mourn." 

Bishop, Abraham: Georgia Speculation Unveiled. Pp. 

144. 1797. 

An Oration on the Extent and Power of Political 
Delusion, delivered in New Haven, on the evening pre- 
ceding Public Commencement, Sept. 1800. Pp. 71. 
Newark: 1800. 

Oration, delivered in Wallingford, Mar. 11, 1801, at 
the Republican Thanksgiving on the election of Jef- 
ferson and Burr. Pp. in. New Haven: 1801. 

Proofs of a Conspiracy, against Christianity and the 
Government of the United States exhibited in several 
views of the Union of Church and State in New Eng- 
land. Pp. 166. Hartford: 1802. 

Church and State, A Political Union formed by the 
enemies of both, containing the correspondence between 
Stanley Griswold and, Rev. Dan Huntington, Ephraim 
Kirby and Rev. Joseph Lyman. Ed. by Abraham 
Bishcp. Pp. 60. 1802. 

Oration in honor of the election of Jefferson and the 
peaceable acquisition of Louisiana, delivered at the 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 425 

National Festival in Hartford, May n, 1804. Pp. 
24. 1804. 

Some remarks and Extracts in reply to Mr. Picker- 
ing's Letter on the subject of the Embargo. Pp. 23. 
The New Haven Remonstrance, together with an 
Exposition of the Remonstrants (against his father's 
appointment as collector, in 1801). 1814. 

Bishop Fund and Phoenix Bonus, A Collection of the Pieces 
on this Subject from the Connecticut Herald. Pp. 76. 
New Haven: 181 6. 

Blatchford, Rev. Samuel: Validity of Presbyterian Ordina- 
tion Maintained, in a letter to Rev. William Smith, 
D.D. New Haven: 1798. 

[Bowden, Rev. G.]: A Full-length Portrait of Calvinism by 
an Old Fashioned Churchman. Pp. 39. New Haven: 
1809. 

Brace, Jonathan: Half century discourse; history of the 
Church in Newington delivered on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 
1855. Pp. 75. Hartford: 1855. 

Bristol, William: An address intended to have been de- 
livered at the Town Meeting in New Haven in reply to 
the reasons urged for requesting his excellency the 
governor to convene the General Assembly, to take 
into consideration the alarming situation of Public Af- 
fairs, together with a short account of the extraordi- 
nary meeting. New Haven: 1809. 

[Carey, James] : A view of the New England Illuminati, who 
are indefatigably engaged in Destroying the Religious 
Government of the U. S. under a feigned regard for 
their Safety and under an impious Abuse of their Re- 
ligion. Pp. 20. Philadelphia: 1799. 

Carey, Matthew : A brief view of the policy of the founders 
of the colonies of Massachusetts .... as regards 
liberty of conscience. Philadelphia: 1828. 

Channing, Rev. William Ellery: Two Sermons on Infidelity, 
delivered Oct. 24, 1813 in Boston. Boston: 1813. 

Chapin, Rev. Calvin: Sermon delivered in Hartford, May 
18, 1 814; before the Connecticut Society for the Pro- 
motion of Good Morals. Hartford: 1814. 

Sermon delivered Jan. 14, 181 7, at the funeral of 
Rev. Timothy Dwight. Pp. 35. New Haven: 1817. 

Clap, President Thomas: The Religious Constitution of 



426 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Colleges, especially of Yale College. Pp. 20. New 
London: 1754. 
Clark, Rev. Daniel A.: The Church Safe-sermon June 25, 
181 7, before the Consociation at Watertown. New 
Haven: 181 7. 
Cogswell, Rev. James: The Character and Duty of Preachers 
and the Duty of People to receive and treat them as 
such. Norwich: 1785. 
[Cranch, William]: An Examination of the President's Reply 
to the New Haven Remonstrance (with an appendix 
giving the list of removals and appointments since 
1 801). Pp. 69. New York: 1801. 
Crossman, Rev. Joseph W. : A New Year's Discourse, de- 
livered at Salisbury, Jan. 2, 1803. Hartford: 1803. 
Daggett, David: Oration delivered at New Haven, July 4, 
1787. 

Oration, July 4, 1799. New Haven. 

Three letters to Abraham Bishop, containing some 
strictures on his Oration, Sept. 1800, by Connecti- 
cutensis. Pp. 36. 

Facts are stubborn things or Nine Plain Questions to 
People of Connecticut with a reply to each by Simon 
Holdfast. Pp. 22. Hartford: 1803. 

Argument before the General Assembly of the State 
of Connecticut, October, 1804, in the case of Certain 
Justices of the Peace. Pp. 30. New Haven: 1804. 

Count the Cost, Address to the People of Connecti- 
cut, chiefly on the proposition for a new constitution 
by Jonathan Steadfast. Pp. 21. Hartford: 1804. 

Steady Habits Vindicated or a serious remonstrance 
to the People of Connecticut against changing their 
government. By a Friend to the Public Welfare. Pp. 
20. Hartford: 1805. 

An Eulogium on Roger Griswold — delivered at the 
request of the General Assembly, Oct. 29, 181 2. Pp. 
24. New Haven: 181 2. 
Dana, Rev. James: The Folly of Practical Atheism, before 
Yale students. New Haven: 1794. 

Christianity, the Wisdom of God, preached at the 
ordination of Rev. Dan Huntington, Oct. 17, 1798. 

There is no reason to be ashamed of the Gospel, 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 427 

preached in East Hartford, Dec. 23, 1801. Hartford: 
1802. 

The Character of Scoffers. Hartford: 1805. 

The Wisdom of Observing the footsteps of Providence, 
Sermon at Wethersfield, Nov. 28, 1805. Hartford: 

1805. 

Two Discourses : 1 . On the Commencement of a New 
Year. 2. On the Completion of the 18th Century, 
Jan. 1801. Pp. 68. New Haven: 1801. 

Day, Thomas: Oration on Party Spirit, before Cincinnati 
at Hartford, July 4, 1798. 

Discourse on the Genuineness and Authenticity of the New 
Testament, delivered at New Haven, Sept. 10, 1793, 
as appointed by the General Association. New York: 
1794. 

Doddridge, Rev. Philip : A Plain and Serious Address to the 
Master of a Family on the important subject of family 
religion. Hartford: 1799. 

Dow, Daniel: Reminiscences of past events: a semi-centen- 
nial sermon preached at Thompson, Apr. 22, 1846. 
Pp. 32. New Haven: 1846. 

Dwight, Theodore: Oration before the Connecticut Cincin- 
nati, July 4, 1792. Oration delivered at Hartford, 
July 4, 1798. Pp. 36. 

Oration, delivered at New Haven, July 7, 1801 be- 
fore the Society of Cincinnati. Pp. 43. Hartford: 
1 801. 

Dwight, Rev. Timothy: The Triumph of Infidelity — a 
Poem. With an abusive dedication to Voltaire. Pp. 27. 
London: 1791. 

A Dissertation on the History, Eloquence, and Poetry 
of the Bible, delivered in New Haven, 1792. 

The Genuineness and Authenticity of the New Testa- 
ment, delivered first at New Haven, Sept. 10, 1793. 
New York: 1794. 

The True Means of Establishing Public Happiness, 
sermon delivered before Conn. Society of Cincinnati, 
July 7, 1797. Pp. 40. 

The Nature and Danger of Infidel Philosophy ex- 
hibited in two Discourses, addressed to the candidates 
for the Baccalaureate in Yale College, Sept. 9, 1797. 
Pp. 95. New Haven: 1798. 



428 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Infidel Philosophy, 1798. 

The Duty of Americans, at the Present Crisis, illus- 
trated in a Discourse preached on the Fourth of July, 
1798. New Haven: 1798. 

A Discourse on some events of the last Century, de- 
livered in New Haven, Jan. 7, 1801. Pp. 55. New 
Haven: 1801. 

The Dignity and Excellence of the Gospel, delivered 
in New Haven, April 8, 181 2. New York: 181 2. 

Sermon at Yale on Public fast, July 23, 181 2. New 
Haven: 181 2. 

Sermon delivered, Boston, Sept. 16, 1813, before the 
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Minis- 
ters. Pp. 34. Boston: 1813. 
Educational Society of Connecticut and Female Education 

Societies. Reports for 181 7 and 181 8. 
Edwards, Rev. Jonathan: Thoughts concerning the Present 
Revival of Religion in New England. London: 1745. 

Funeral Oration on Roger Sherman, Senator of the 
U. S., who died July 23, 1793. Pp. 24. New Haven: 

-793- 

The Duty of Ministers of the Gospel to preach the 
Truth. Hartford: 1795. 
Election Sermons. 

There is a fairly complete bibliography of these sermons 
from 1674 to 1813, giving the name of preacher, society, text, 
size in pages, in the Appendix to Rev. Chauncey Lee's sermon, 
1813. Political sermons are noticeable after the party strug- 
gle hardens, but even then, the lesson was somewhat hidden 
in text and interpretation. Following are some of the more 
noteworthy sermons: 
Bassett, Rev. Amos: Advantages and Means of Union in 

Society, 1807. 
Brockway, Rev. Diodate: Sermon, 1815. 
Burnett, Rev. Dr. Matthias: Sermon, 1803. Pp. 29. 
Croswell, Rev. Harry: Sermon, 1818. Called for equal rights 

for all Christians and divorce of politics and preaching. 
Cushman, Rev. Elisha: Sermon for 1820. 
Elliott, Rev. John: "The gracious presence of God, the highest 

felicity and security of any people." 1810. 
Ely, Rev. Zebulon: Wisdom and Duty of Magistrates. 1804. 
Flint, Rev. Abel: Sermon. Pp. 27. 1816. 
Hooker, Rev. Asahel: Sermon, 1805. 
Huntington, Rev. Dan: "They shall prosper that love thee." 

1814. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 429 

Lee, Rev. Chauncey: The Government of God, the true 

Source and Standard of Human Government. 1813. 
Lyman, Rev. William: The Happy Nation, 1806. "Ruthless 

spirits will foment difficulties." Pp. 30. 
McEwen, Rev. Abel: Sermon, 1817. 
Nott, Rev. Samuel: Prayer the Duty of Rulers and Nation. 

1809. 
Perkins, Rev. Nathan: Benign Influence of Religion on Civil 

Government and National Happiness. 1808. 
Smalley, Rev. John: On the Evils of a Weak Government. 

1800. Pp. 51. 
Stebbins, Rev. Stephen: God's Government of Church and 

the World, the Source of great Consolation and Joy. 

1811. 
Stiles, Rev. Ezra: The United States elevated to Glory and 

Honor. A sermon, May 8, 1783. Pp. 99. New Haven: 

1783. 
Strong, Rev. Joseph: Sermon, 1802. 
Trumbull, Dr. Benjamin: The Dignity of Man as Displayed 

in Civil Government. 1801. 
Wales, Rev. Samuel : The Dangers of our National Prosperity, 

and the Way to avoid them. May 12, 1785. Hartford: 

1785. 
Welsh, Rev. Dr. Moses : An Excellent Spirit forms the Charac- 
ter of a Good Ruler. Pp. 18. 1812. 

Ely, Rev. Zebulon : Discourse delivered in Lebanon at the 
funeral of His Excellency, Jonathan Trumbull, who 
died Aug. 7, 1809. Pp. 27. Hartford: 1809. 

Emerson, Rev. Ralph: Discourse, on duties of ministers, 
delivered at Norfolk, May 16, 1816. Hartford: 181 7. 

Fisher, Rev. George P.: Discourse commemorative of the 
history of the Church of Christ in Yale College. 
Preached in CoUege Chapel, Nov. 22, 1857. Pp. 99. 
New Haven: 1858. 

Freemen: As you Were! A Word of Advice to Straight- 
Haired Folks, addressed to the Freemen by one of their 
number. Pp. 16. 1816. 

Frothingham, Ebenezer: A Key to Unlock the Door that 
leads in to take a Fair View of the Religious Constitu- 
tion established by law in the Colony of Connecticut. 
Middletown: 1767. 

[Gale, Benjamin]: The Present State of the Colony of Con- 
necticut Considered. Pp. 21. New London: 1755. 

A Reply to a Pamphlet entitled the Answer of the 
Friend in the West with a Prefatory Address to the 
Freemen .... Pp. 63. 1755. 



430 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

A Calm and full Vindication of a Letter wrote to 
a Member of the Lower House .... being an 
answer in Vindication of Yale College with some Further 
Remarks on the Laws and Government of that Society. 
New Haven: 1759. 

Brief, Decent but Free Remarks and Observations 
on Several Laws passed by the .... Legislature 
. . . since 1775. Hartford: 1782. 

Gardiner, Rev. John S.: A Preventive against Unitarianism. 
1811. 

Graham, John : A Letter to a Member of the House of Rep- 
resentatives of the Colony of Connecticut, in vindica- 
tion of Yale College. Pp. 18. 1759. 

Granger, Gideon: A Vindication of the Measures of the 
Present Administration. Pp. 32. Hartford: 1803. 

An Address to the People of New England, Dec. 15, 
1808. Pp. 38. Washington: 1808. 

Griswold, Rev. John: The Triumph of the Wicked and the 
Reign of Infidelity, preached at Pawlet, Vt. 

Griswold, Gov. Roger: Message to the General Assembly, 
at Special Session Aug. 25, 1812, with accompanying 
documents. Also a pamphlet report of the Legislative 
committee. Pp. 22, 14. New Haven: 1812. 

Griswold, Rev. Stanley: A statement of the Singular Man- 
ner of Proceeding of the Association of Litchfield County 
in an Ecclesiastical Prosecution against him. Pp. 32. 
Hartford: 1798. 

Discourse, Oct. 12, 1800. Truth its Own Test and 
God its Only Judge. Pp. 32. Bridgeport: 1800. 
A Sermon on July 7, 1802. 

The Good Land We Live In. Pp. 29. Suffield: 
1802. 

Grosvenor, Rev. L. : History of the First Congregational 
Church and Society of Woodstock. Thanksgiving Dis- 
course, 1859. Pp. 28. Worcester: 1860. 

Hammond, Charles: A Sermon Preached at the Rededica- 
tion of the Congregational Church, in Union, Conn. 
July 25, 1865. Pp. 39. Springfield: 1867. 

Hartford Convention — The Proceedings of a Convention of 
Delegates convened at Hartford, Dec. 15, 1814. Hart- 
ford: Jan., 1815. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 431 

Hartford County Agricultural Society — Articles of Associa- 
tion and By Laws. Hartford: 1817. 

Hawks, Rev. Joel: A Centennial Discourse in First Church 
of Hartford. 1836. 

Hetrick, Rev. Andrew J.: A Historical Address, preached 
Oct. 27, 1895, in the Meeting House on Canterbury 
Green. Pp. 40. Norwich: 1895. 

Hillhouse, Senator James: Propositions for the Amending 
the Constitution of the United States submitted to the 
Senate, Apr. 12, 1808, with his explanatory remarks. 
Pp. 31. New Haven: 1808. 

Commissioner of School Fund Report for 1818. 
New Haven: June, 1818. Report for 1819. 

Hilliard, Isaac: The Federal Pye. Sixteen pages of verse 
on the Federal caucus at Hartford. Danbury: 1803. 

Hine, Rev. Orlo D.: Early Lebanon, an Historical Address 
delivered in Lebanon, Conn, by request on the National 
Centennial, July 4, 1876, with an appendix of Historical 
Notes by Nathaniel Morgan. Hartford: 1880. 

Hobart, Bishop Henry: The Moral and Positive Benefits 
of the Ordinances of the Gospel, delivered at New 
Haven. New Haven: 1816. 

Hobart, Rev. Noah: On the Ecclesiastical Constitution of 
the Consociated Churches, in the Colony of Connecti- 
cut. New Haven: 1765. 

Hooker, Rev. Asahel: Sermon en The Use and Importance 
of Preaching the Distinguishing Doctrines of the 
Gospel, delivered at Goshen, Oct. 30, 1805. North- 
ampton: 1806. 

Humphrey, Rev. Heman: The Duties of Ministers and 
People, preached before the General Association of 
Connecticut, June 18, 1816. Pp. 24. New Haven: 
1816. 

Humphreys, David: A Valedictory Address before the Con- 
necticut Cincinnati, Hartford, July 4, 1804, at the dis- 
solution of the Society. Pp. 60. Boston: 1804. 

Discourse on the Agriculture of the State of Connecti-* 
cut and the means of making it more Beneficial to the 
State. Pp. 42. New Haven: 1816. 

Intemperance, Address on — to the Churches and Congrega- 
tions of Fairfield County. 1813. 

Ives, Rev. Joel S. : An Historical Sermon of the First Church, 



432 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

East Hampton, Conn., July 9, 1876. Pp. 18. Middle- 
town: 1876. 

Jacocks, John H.: Bishop's Bonus, Seabury College, 
Divine Right of Presbyterianism and Divine Right of 
Episcopacy. A Series of essays appearing in papers, 
1815-1816, by Toleration. Pp. 99. New Haven: 
1816. 

Judd, Rev. B.: Sermon delivered at the Anniversary of the 
Episcopal Academy, Cheshire .... Oct. 7, 1812. 
Hartford: 1812. 

Judd, William: Address to the People of the State of Con- 
necticut on the removal of himself and four other jus- 
tices by the General Assembly for declaring and pub- 
lishing their opinion that the People of this State are 
at present without a Constitution of Civil Government. 
Printed for General Committee of Republicans. Sid- 
ney's Press: 1804. 

Learning, Rev. Jeremiah: Sermon on The Evidence for the 
Truth of Christianity made plain from Matters of 
Fact. Pp. 14. New York: 1772. 

Lee, Rev. Andrew: Half -century sermon preached at Han- 
over, Oct. 25, 1818. Windham: 1819. 

Lee, Rev. Chauncey: A Discourse, The Tree of Knowledge 
of Political Good and Evil, delivered at Colbrook, 
July 4, 1800. Hartford: 1800. 

Leland, Rev. John: 

The Connecticut Dissenters' Strong Box No. 1, con- 
taining The High-flying Churchman stript of his legal 
Robe [written 1791], The Dissenters' Petition, Con- 
necticut Ecclesiastical Laws, American Constitutions 
[Extracts from], Sixteen of which recognize the Rights 
of Conscience and three the doctrine of Church and 
State. New London: 1802. Printed by Charles Holt, 
the Republican editor. 

Van Tromp lowering with his peak, With a Broadside, 
containing a plea for the Baptists of Connecticut. Pp. 
36. Danbury: 1806. 

A Blow at the Root [sermon delivered at Cheshire, 
Apr. 9, 1801]. Pp. 32. New London: 1801. 

An Elective Judiciary. Speech at Cheshire. July 
4, 1805. 

The Advantage and Necessity of the Christian Reve- 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 433 

lation, shown from the State of Religion in the Ancient 
Heathen World. 2 vols. Philadelphia: 1819. 

Some Events in the Life of John Leland, by himself. 
Pp. 44. Pittsfield: 1838. 

Lewis, Rev. Isaac: Sermon delivered in New Haven at the 
Ordination of the Rev. Jeremiah Day, President of Yale 
College, July 23, 1817. New Haven: 1817. 

Lewis, Zechariah: Oration on the apparent, and the Real 
Political Situation of the U. S. before Connecticut 
Cincinnati, July 4, 1799. Pp. 24. New Haven: 1799. 

McEwen, Abel: Half-century sermon . . . in first Socie- 
ty of New London. New London: 1857. 

McLaughlin, Rev. D. Tompkins: A Discourse, preached at 
the re-opening of the Congregational Church in Sharon, 
Mar. 2, 1864. Pp. 29. New York: 1864. 

Manufactures, Constitution of Connecticut Society for the 
Encouragement of. 

Address of Connecticut Society for the Encourage- 
ment of. Pp. 24. Middletown: 1817. 

Man waring, Christopher: Oration, 1804, at New London. 

Marsh, Rev. Ebenezer: Truth of the Mosaic History of the 
Creation, at Yale Commencement, 1798. Hartford: 
1798. 

Methodist-Episcopal Church, Minutes at Annual Conference 
of, for the years, 1814, 1815, 1816, 1817, and 1818. 

Miller, Rev. Jonathan: The Holy Scriptures the Only In- 
struction of the Christian Preacher, delivered before 
Yale College, Sept. 9, 1812. New Haven: 1812. 

Miller, Rev. William: Historical Discourse of the Congre- 
gational Church in Killingworth, May 31, 1870. Pp. 
67. New Haven: 1870. 

Missionary Society, Articles of Incorporation. 1802. 

Reports for 1801, 1813, 1814, 1815, 1816, 1817 are all of 
especial value. Contain lists of officers, missionaries sent out, 
location of New Englanders in West, shipments of Bibles, etc. 

Morals, Address of the Connecticut Society for the promo- 
tion of Good. Oct. 19, 1814. 

Morse, Rev. Asahel: Oration, July 4, 1802, at Winsted. 
Hartford: 1802. 

Newberry, H.: Address before the Hartford County Agri- 
cultural Society, Oct. 5, 1820. Hartford: 1820. 



434 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

[Ogden, John Cosins]: An Appeal to the candid upon the 
Present State of Religion and Politics in Connecticut. 
Pp. 23. 1796. 

A Short History of late ecclesiastical oppressions in 
New England and Vermont. 

A View of the Calvinistic Clubs in the United States. 
A View of the New England Illuminati. 

Parsons, Isaac: A retrospect: two sermons preached . . . 
Oct. 24, 1841. Pp. 32. Hartford: 1841. 

Perkins, Rev. Nathan: A Half Century Sermon, delivered 
at West Hartford, Oct. 13, 1822. Pp. 24. Hartford: 
1822. 

Sermon at the funeral of Rev. Nathan Strong, who 
died Dec. 25, 1816. Pp. 27. Hartford: 1817. 

Pickering, Timothy: Letter to Gov. James Sullivan, on 
Danger of an Unnecessary War. Reprinted. New 
Haven: 1808. 

Pierce, Rev. A. C: Days of Old Remembered — A historical 
discourse delivered in the Congregational Church, Brook- 
field, July 16, 1876. Pp. 24. Bridgeport: 1876. 

Porter, Rev. Ebenezer: The Fatal Effects of Ardent Spirits. 
Hartford: 1811. 

Porter, Rev. Noah: Sermon, Perjury Prevalent and Dan- 
gerous, delivered at Farmington, Sept. 1813. Pp. 15. 
Hartford: 1813. 

Discourse on the Settlement and Progress of New 
England. Hartford: 1821. 

Anniversary Thanksgiving Sermon, 1821. Hartford: 
1822. 

Sermon delivered at the funeral of Hon. John Tread- 
well .... Pp. 19. Hartford: 1823. 

[Reeve, Tapping]: The Sixth of August, or the Litchfield 
Festival. An Address to the Freemen. Pp. 16. 

Richards, George H. : The Politics of Connecticut, addressed 
to Honest men of all parties, by a Federalist Republican. 
Pp. 36. Hartford: 1817. 

Rogers, Clark: The Husbandman's Aim to refute the Clergy 
respecting the Decrees of God: Their Doctrine Un- 
folded and Errors Exposed. Pp. 39. New London: 
1801. 

Rowland, Rev. Henry A. : Sermon at the funeral of Oliver 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 435 

Ellsworth, LL.D., who died Nov. 26, 1807. Pp.15. 
Hartford: 1808. 

Schermerhorn, John F., and Samuel J. Mills: Correct View 
of the U. S. west of Allegheny Mountains — regarding 
Religion, Morals, etc. Pp. 52. Hartford: 1814. 

Sherman, Rev. Charles S.: A Memorial Discourse in Com- 
memoration of the National Centennial, delivered in the 
Congregational Church, Naugatuck, July 9, 1876. 
Waterbury: 1876. 

"Sidney:" Modern Toleration, — Tyranny in Disguise, 1818. 

Silliman, Prof. Benjamin: Oration, before Connecticut Cin- 
cinnati, July 6, 1802. The Theories of Modern Phil- 
osophy in Religion, Government, and Morals, Contrasted 
with the Practical System of New England. Pp. 34. 
Hartford: 1802. 

Eulogium of President Dwight before Yale Aca- 
demic Body, Feb. 12. New Haven: 1817. 

Smith, Junius: Fourth of July Oration, 1804, before Cin- 
cinnati. 

Stanley, George W.: Oration at Wallingford, Aug. 8, 1805, 
in commemoration of Independence. New Haven: 
1805. 

Oration at Wallingford, Apr. 4, 1814 in Celebration 
of the Overthrow of Napoleon. Pp. 31. New Haven: 
1814. 

Stiles, Rev. Ezra: Discourse on the Christian Union 

before Congregational Clergy ... of Rhode 
Island. Pp. 139. Boston: 1761. 

Funeral Sermon for Rev. Chauncey Whittelsey, 
July 24, 1787. New Haven: 1787. 

Strong, Rev. Joseph: Sermon preached Mar. 23, 1828 on 
completion of 50 Years in the ministry. Pp. 26. Nor- 
wich: 1828. 

Strong, Rev. Dr. Nathan: A Thanksgiving Sermon, Nov. 
27, 1800. Hartford: 1800. 

On the Universal spread of the Gospel, delivered 
Jan. 4, 1801. Pp. 46. Hartford: 1801. 

Sermon delivered at Hartford, July 23, 1812. Hart- 
ford: 1812. 

[Swift, Zephaniah]: A Vindication of the Special Superior 
Court for trial of Peter Lung [Murderer] with Obser- 
vations on the Constitutional Power of the Legislature 



436 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

to interfere with the Judiciary in the Administration 
of Justice. 1816. 

The Correspondent — containing Publications in 
Windham Herald relative to Result of Ecclesiastical 
Council, holden Sept. 1792, and Consociation of Wind- 
ham County, Nov. 1792, respecting Rev. Oliver Dodge. 
Pp. 140. Windham: 1793. 

Taylor, Rev. Nathaniel: Regeneration, the Beginning of 
Holiness in the Human Heart. Pp. 19. New Haven: 
1816. 

Tracy, Senator Uriah: Manifesto of the Freemen of Con- 
necticut, Sept. 6, 1803. Pp. 16. Litchfield: 1803. 

Trumbull, Rev. Benjamin: Century Sermon. Pp. 36. 
New Haven: 1801. 

A Letter to an Honourable Gentleman of the Council- 
Board for the Colony of Connecticut shewing that Yale 
College is a very great Emolument. Pp. 26. New 
Haven: 1766. 

Trumbull, Judge John: The Mischief of Legislative Caucuses 
exposed in an Address to the people of Connecticut. 
Hartford: 1819. 

Trumbull, Gov. Jonathan : Address to the General Assembly 
and Freemen of Connecticut declining any further elec- 
tion to public office. New London: 1783. 

Two Brothers: A Dialogue. Pp. 18. Printed by Hudson 
and Goodwin: 1806. 

Tyler, Rev. John E.: Historical Discourse delivered before 
the First Church and Society of Windham County, 
Dec. 10, 1850. Hartford: 1851. 

Varnum, James M.: The Case, Trevett against Weeden. 
Pp. 60. Providence: 1787. 

Wain wright, Rev. Jonathan A. : An Historical Discourse 
delivered in St. John's Church, Salisbury .... 
New Haven: 1868. 

Waterman, Rev. Elijah: Century Sermon, Dec. 10, 1800, 
commemorating the foundation of the church, Dec. 10, 
1700. Pp. 43. Windham: 1801. 

Webster, Noah: The Revolution in France, considered in 

respect to its Progress and effects. New York: 1794. 

Fourth of July Oration. New Haven: 1798. 

Ten Letters to Dr. Joseph Priestley in answer to his 

letters to the Inhabitants of Northumberland. Pp. 29. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 437 

A Rod for the Fool's Back [Abraham Bishop], Prov. 
xxvi, 3. New Haven: 1800. 

Fourth of July Oration. Pp. 30. New Haven: 1802. 
Address to the citizens of Connecticut. By Chatham. 
Pp. 24. 1803. 

Address to the Freemen of Connecticut. Pp. 12. 
Hartford: 1806. 

Letter to the President of the United States touching 
Prosecutions under his patronage before the Circuit 
Court in the District of Connecticut. By Hampden. 
Pp. 28. New Haven: 1808. 

The Peculiar Doctrines of the Gospel Explained and 
defended. 
Welch, Rev. Moses C: Sermon before Windham County 

Association. Pp. 19. Hartford: 1807. 
Williams, Rev. Samuel P.: An Enquiry into the State of 
the Churches. Sermon preached before several 
churches of Windham County. Hartford: 1816. 
Wines, Rev. Abijah: Discourse on Human Depravity, de- 
livered at Guilford, Oct. 23, 1803. Middletown: 1804. 
Wolcott, Oliver: An Address to the People of the United 
States on the subject of the report of the Committee 
of the House of Representatives appointed to examine 
. . . . the Treasury .... Pp. 112. Bos- 
ton: 1802. 

British Influence on the Affairs of the United States, 
Proved and Explained. Pp. 23. Boston: 1804. 

A detailed report to the Assembly on Taxation, May, 
1819. Pp. 23. 

3. LOCAL AND SPECIAL HISTORIES, AND BIOGRAPHI- 
CAL MATERIAL 

The following list records such state, county, 
and town histories as have been drawn upon for 
this essay. It contains also biographies that have 
been found useful, chiefly those bearing upon the 
lives of Connecticut men. 

Allen, Francis Olcott: The History of Enfield, Connecticut. 
3 vols. Lancaster, Pa.: 1900. 



438 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Alvord, Rev. J. W. : Historical Address delivered in . . 
Stamford at . . . the Second Centennial Anni- 
versary of the settlement of the Town. Pp. 40. New 
York: 1842. 

Anderson, Rev. Joseph [ed.]: The Town and City of Water- 
bury. 3 vols. New Haven: 1896. 

Andrews, Charles M.: 'The River Towns of Connecticut." 
Johns Hopkins University Studies. Baltimore: 1889. 

Andrews, Rev. William W.: The Correspondence and Mis- 
cellanies of the Hon. John Cotton Smith, with an Eulogy. 
.... New York: 1-47. 

Atkins, Thomas: History of Middlefield and Long Hill. 
Hartford: 1883. 

Atwater, E. E. [et at.]: History of thi City of New Haven to 
the present time. . . . with biographies. New 
York: 1887. 

Atwater, Francis [ed.]: History of the Town of Plymouth 
.... Meriden: 1895. 

History of Kent, .... including Biographical 
Sketches .... Meriden: 1897. 

Avery, Rev. John: History of the Town of Ledyard, 1650- 
1900. Norwich: 1901. 

Bacon, Rev. Leonard: Sketch of the Life and Public Services 
of Hon. James Hillhouse, 1754-1832. Pp. 46. New 
Haven: 1860. 

Bailey, James Montgomery: Histo>\> of Danbury . . . 
1684-1896. New York: 1896. 

Baker, Henry A. [compiler] : History of Montville. 1640- 
1896. Hartford: 1896. 

Baldwin, Simeon E.: "The Early History of the Ballot in 
Connecticut." In. Amer. Hist. Assoc, Report for 1890, 
pp. 81-97. "The Ecclesiastical Constitution of Yale 
College." In New Haven Colony Hist. Soc, Papers, 
III, 405-443. "The Three Constitutions of Connecti- 
cut." In New Haven Colony Hist. Soc, Papers, V, 179— 
246. An Historical Address before the Chamber of 
Commerce of New Haven, Apr. 9, 1894. Pp. 37. "Con- 
necticut in Pennsylvania." In New Haven Colony Hist. 
Soc, Papers, VIII, 1-19. 

Barber, John W., and Punderson, Lemuel S.: History and 
Antiquities of New Haven .... with Biographi- 
cal Sketches. New Haven: 1856. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 439 

Barnard, Henry: A Discourse in commemoration of . . . . 
Rev. Thomas Gallaudet delivered at Hartford, with an 
appendix containing history of deaf-mute instruction. 
Hartford: 1852. 

Barry, John Stetson: History of Massachusetts. 3 vols. 
Boston: 1855-1857. 

Barstow, George: The History of New Hampshire from 1614 
to the passage of the Toleration Acts in 1819. Boston: 
1853. 2d ed. 

Bates, Albert Carlos [ed.]: Records of Rev. Roger Viets } 
rector of St. Andrews (P. E.), Simsbury .... 1763— 
1800. Hartford: 1893. "Connecticut Local Histories 
in Conn. Hist. Society and the Watkinson Library." 
In Conn. Hist. Soc, Report for 1893, pp. 23-38. 
Records of the Second School Society in Granby .... 
1796-1855. Hartford: 1903. Pp. 43. Records of the 
Congregational Church in Turkey Hills . . . ." 
1776-1858. Hartford: 1907. Lis of Congregational 
Ecclesiastical Societies established in Connecticut before 
1818 with their changes. Hartford: 1913. Pp. 35. 
Papers of the Connecticut State Society of the Cincin- 
nati, 1783-1807. Hartford: 1916. 

Beach, Joseph Perkins : History of Cheshire .... 1694 
to 1840. Cheshire: 1912. 

Beardsley, Rev. E. Edwards: The History of the Episcopal 
Church in Connecticut, from the Settlement of the 
Colony .... to 1865. 2 vols. New York: 1866- 
1868. Life and Times of William Samuel Johnson, 
LL.D. New York: 1876. Life and Correspondence of 
he Rt. Rev. Samuel Seabury, D.D., first Bishop .... 
of the Episcopal Church in the United States of Ameri- 
ca. Boston: 1881. 2d ed. 

Beecher, Rev. Lyman Autobiography and Correspondence. 
Ed. by Charles Beecher. New York: 1864. 

Bidwell, Percy Wells: Rural Economy in New England at 
the Beginning -of the Nineteenth Century. New Haven: 
1916. An accurate and interesting doctoral disserta- 
tion describing the agricultural life of the section. 

Bishop, Henry F.: Historical Sketch of Lisbon .... 
from 1786 to 1900. New York: 1903. 

Blake, Henry T.: Chronicles of New Haven Green, from 1638 
to 1862. New Haven: 1898. 



440 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

Blake, William P. [ed.]: History of the Town of Hamden 
.... New Haven: 1888. "Sketch of the Life 
of Eli Whitney." In New Haven Colony Hist. Soc, 
Papers, V, 110-131. 

Boardman, David S.: Sketches of the Early Lights of the 
Litchfield Bar Litchfield: 1860. Pp. 38. 

Bouton, Rev. Nathaniel: An Historical Discourse . . . . 
at the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Settlement of 
Norwalk . . . delivered July 9, 1851. New York: 
1851. Pp. 80. 

Boyd, John: Annals and Family Records of Winchester 
.... Hartford: 1873. 

Brainerd, A.: Middletown. 1877. Pp. 28. 

Breckenridge, Frances A.: Recollections of a New England 
Town, Meriden. 1899. 

Bronson, Dr. Henry: The History of Waterbury .... 
with an appendix of biography, genealogy, and statis- 
tics. Waterbury: 1858. "Early Government o ; Con- 
necticut, with critical and explanatory remarks on the 
Constitution of 1639." In New Haven Colony Hist. 
Soc, Papers, III, 292-403. "An Historical Account of 
Connecticut Currency, Continental Money, and the 
Finances of the Revolution." In New Haven Colony 
Hist. Soc, Papers, I. 

Camp, David N. : History of New Britain, with sketches of 
Farmington and Berlin, .... 1640-1889. New 
Britain: 1889. 

Campbell, Rev. Hollis A. [et. al.]: Seymour, Past and Present. 
Seymour: 1902. 

Cary, M. B.: The Connecticut Constitution. New Haven: 
1900. 

Caulkins, Frances M.: History of Norwich, .... from 
its settlement in 1660 to 1'845. Norwich: 1845. 
History of New London, .... from the first 
survey of the coast in 1612 to 1852. New London: 
1852. 

Chandler, Thomas Bradbury: The Life of Samuel Johnson. 
New York: 1805. 

Chapin, A. B.: Glastonbury for Two Hundred Years. Hart- 
ford: 1853. 

Child, Frank S.: Fairfield, Ancient and Modern .... 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 441 

prepared for the 270th Anniversary of the town's settle- 
ment. 1909. Pp. 75. 

Church, Judge Samuel: A Historical Address delivered 
. . . . at the 100th Anniversary of the first town- 
meeting of ... . Salisbury. Oct. 20, 1841. 
New Haven: 1842. Pp. 24. Ms. Account in New 
Haven Colony Hist. Soc. Library, descriptive of the 
struggle leading up to the Convention of 1818, in which 
the writer represented Salisbury. It was written at 
the request of G. H. Hollister then writing a history of 
the state. 

Clap, President Thomas: Annals or History of Yale College. 
New Haven: 1766. 

Clark, E. F. : Methodist-Episcopal Churches of Norwich, Con- 
necticut. Norwich: 1867. 

Clark, Rev. George L.: History of Connecticut. New York: 
1914. 

Cleveland, Catherine C. : The Great Revival in the West, 
1797-1805. Chicago: 1916. 

Cole, J. R.: History of Tolland County. New York: 1888. 

Connecticut, Colonial Records of . . . . Ed. by C. J. 
Hoadley and J. Hammond Trumbull. 1635-1776. 
15 vols. Hartford: 1850-1890. Records of the State of 
.... Ed. by C. J. Hoadley. 1776-1780. 2 vols. 
Hartford: 1894-1895. Public Statute Laws of the State 
of ... . Hartford: 1808. 

This revision, with its historical annotations, makes it 
almost unnecessary to refer to the revisions or editions of 
1702, 1714, 1742-1750, 1769, 1784, 1786 and 1796. 

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This is an admirable map, marking county and town lines, 
sites of settled societies, town-halls, and various manufac- 
turing plants, mills and distilleries. 



442 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

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444 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

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This is a stimulating essay of sound scholarship treat- 
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450 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

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4. MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 

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452 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

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Contains sketches of Samuel Johnson, Timothy Dwight 
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454 CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818 

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Riley, I. Woodbridge: The Founder of Mormonism. New 

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9 vols. New York: 1857-1869. 

Stevens, Rev. Abel: History of the Methodist-Episcopal 
Church in United States of America. 4 vols. New York: 
1864-1867. Memorials of the Introduction of Methodism 
into the Eastern States. Boston: 1848. 

Story, W. W. : Life and Letters of Joseph Story. 2 vols. Bos- 
ton: 1851. 

Thomas, E. S.: Reminiscences of the last Sixty-five Years. 
2 vols. Hartford: 1840. 

Thorpe, Francis Newton [ed.]: The Federal and State Con- 
stitutions, Colonial Charters, and other Organic Laws 
of the States, Territories, and Colonies now or heretofore 
forming the United States of America. 7 vols. Wash- 
ington: 1909. 

Walker, Rev. Williston: The Creeds and Platforms of Con- 
gregationalism. New York: 1893. 

Wansey, Henry: Journal of an Excursion to the United States 
of America, 1794. Salisbury: 1796. 

Warden, D. B.: Statistical, Political and Historical Account 
of the United States of North America. 3 vols. Edin- 
burgh: 1819. 

Watson, Elkanah: A History of Agricultural Societies on the 
Modern Berkshire System. Albany: 1820. 

Watson, Winslow C: Men and Times of the Revolution or 
Memoirs of Elkanah Watson. New York: 1856. 

Weeden, William B.: Economic and Social History of New 
England. 2 vols. Boston: 1890. 

Wood, John [James Cheetham]: History of the Administra- 
tion of John Adams. New York: 1802. 

Wright, Chester Whitney: Wool-Growing and the Tariff. 
Cambridge: 1910. 



INDEX 



Adams, John, 229, 310, 333. 

Adams, John Quincy, treaties on 
hemp raising, 165; views of New 
England disunion, 251, 295. 

Agriculture, condition of, 2, 140, 
158, 159, 354; in England, 158- 
159; laws and societies for im- 
provement of, 161. 

Albany, 153. 

Alien and Sedition Laws, 250. 

Allen, Ethan, religious belief of, 
13-14; author of Oracles of Rea- 
son, 13; mentioned, 20, 152. 

Allen, Ira, 152. 

Allen, J., 201. 

Alsop, Col. John, 372. 

Alsop, Joseph, 105, 112. 

Alsop, Richard, wealthy trader, 
98. 

American Revolution, 1, 8, 185. 

Ames, Fisher, quoted, 252; de- 
scribes Republicans, 330; men- 
tioned, 237. 

Andover, 345. 

Andrews, Rev. Mr., sermon 
quoted, 42. 

Andros, Governor, 181. 

Anglican church, see Episcopal 
church. 

Anticlericalism, of Republican 
party, 236, 331. 

Anti-Federalists, 227-228. 

Articles of Confederation, 211. 

Asbury, Bishop Francis, on reli- 
gious tone of Yale, 29; character- 
izes Baptists, 79; his Journal, 
84; tours Connecticut, 84-85. 

Assembly, description and pow- 
ers of, 188. 

Atheism, a felony, 43. 

Atwater, Rev. Noah, quoted on 
lawyers, 305. 

Austin, Aaron, in the constitu- 
tional convention, 375, 382, 396; 
mentioned, 325, 360, 370. 



Austin, David, 105. 

Backus, Rev. Azel, sermons men- 
tioned, 35; president of Hamil- 
ton College, Georgia, 153; 
quoted, 230n., libels Jefferson, 
277. 

Backus, Rev. Charles, sermons 
mentioned, 35. 

Backus, Rev. Isaac, mission to 
England, 69; Baptist pamphlets 
of, 75. 

Backus, Sylvanus, 106, 326. 

Baldwin, Judge Simeon, cited, 218, 
290. 

Baldwin, Simeon, 106, 25 In., 262n., 
277n., 375, 398, 405n. 

Balloting, methods of, 193-194, 
214; increasing importance of, 
236; purity of, 300. 

Bank of America, 333. 

Banks, 2, 119; failure of, 134; 
sketch of their establishment, 
98; charters, 102, 108; in the 
control of a class, 103, 104, 109; 
opposed by Republicans, 271. 

Baptist church, growth of, 5, 57, 
66, 80-81; opposition to state- 
church, 68, 74, 400, 402; atti- 
tude toward war, 69; illiteracy 
of ministers, 70, 87; in New 
England, 70; Strict Congrega- 
tionalists, merger with, 70-71; 
founds college in Rhode Island, 
72; democracy of, 72; petitions 
and Bonus Act, 27, 345; men- 
tioned, 46, 47, 64, 85, 238, 356. 

Barber, Rev. Virgil Horace, be- 
comes a Catholic priest, 92. 

Barlow, Joel, influence of, 22; 
quoted, 27; mentioned, 32, 227, 
228, 241. 

Barstow, George, views on Con- 
necticut's new constitution, 
414n. 



457 



458 



INDEX 



Beach, Rev. James, sermon men- 
tioned, 37. 

Beach, Rev. John, conversion of, 
49. 

Beecher, Rev Lyman, views of 
Yale religious life, 26; sermons, 
34, 9 35; quoted, 36, 38, 286, 287n., 
291n.; opposed to duelling, 37; 
opposed to liberalism, 39, 42 ; on 
Connecticut tolerance, 93; on 
character of Congregational 
ministry, 322; on clerical poli- 
tics, 323; views on Revolution 
of 1817-1818, 350, 419; men- 
tioned, 290, 319, 324, 325. 

Beers, Isaac, 62, 105. 

Beers, Seth P., supports constitu- 
tion, 410. 

Belknap, Rev. Jeremy, 19. 

Bellamy, Dr. Joseph, crusade 
against infidelity, 28; men- 
tioned, 42. 

Bentley, Rev. William, Diary 
quoted, 20, 286n., 313. 

Berkley, Dean, deism of, 6; men- 
tioned, 25. 

Berkshire, Agricultural Society of, 
142, 162, 164. 

Berlin, 121, 130. 

Bill of Rights, interpretation of, 
409n. 

Bird, Rev. Jonathan, Federalist 
preaching of, 250, 313-314; de- 
scribes Republicans, 329. 

Bishop, Abraham, attacks Congre- 
gational clergy, 21, 190-191, 
232; attacks the system, 78; 
attacks on Yale, 94, 301; as- 
sault on Council, 201; quoted, 
212; political charges by, 258; 
address on extent and power Of 
political delusion, 315-316; on 
character of Republicans, 329; 
mentioned, 105, 197, 228, 229n., 
237, 240, 243, 250, 253, 269, 
274, 278, 322, 358. 

Bishop, Samuel, appointment as 
collector at New Haven, 239. 

Bishop's Fund, 64, 108; see also 
Episcopal church. 

Boardman, Elijah, attitude on 



War of 1812, 289n., 290; men- 
tioned, 286, 292, 296, 332. 

Bolingbroke, Lord, 19. 

Bonus Act, 344-346. 

Brace, John P., 419. 

Brade, Jonathan, 112, 145, 200, 
201, 325, 359, 360. 

Brace, Thomas K., 112. 

Brainerd, Ezra, 326. 

Brainerd, Jeremiah, 398n. 

Bridgeport, 131; Bank of, 101. 

Brighton Cattle Show, 164. 

Bristol, William, Essay in defense 
of Embargo, 282; work in the 
convention, 378, 379. 

Bristol, 51, 69, 120. 

British Constitution, 406n.; see 
also England. 

Brookfield, Episcopal church in, 
57. 

Brooklyn, Episcopal church in, 52. 

Brown, Rev. Daniel, 47. 

Brownell, Bishop, 59. 

Bull, J., 259. 

Bull, Thomas, 145. 

Bureaucracy, in Connecticut, 210. 

Burke, Edmund, quoted, 139. 

Burlington, 131,345, 411; dissent- 
ing churches in, 57, 69, 86. 

Burnham, Oliver, in the conven- 
tion, 376. 

Burr, Aaron, 232, 240, 252n. 

Burrows, Daniel, in the conven- 
tion, 379. 

Burrows, Enoch, a Republican 
demagogue, 371; in the conven- 
tion, 397. 

Caldwell, John, 104, 105, 111, 
112, 145, 326. 

Calvinism, liberalizing of, 39, 41 ; 
see also Puritans, ideals. 

Canaan, 83, 121. 

Canada, effect of Embargo on, 
278. 

Canterbury, 89. 

Capital, increase in monetary, 98. 

Carey, Matthew, taunts Connec- 
ticut with lack of patriotism, 
294. 

Carrying trade, 113. 



INDEX 



459 



Cary, James, 319. 

Catholic church, attacks upon, 
34, 35; and French Revolution, 
16-18; position of, 91-92. 

Caucuses, political, 300. 

Certificate laws, 67-68, 78, 81, 82, 
92; reform of, 355-356. 

Channing, Rev. Henry, a Unita- 
rian divine, 90. 

Channing, ReV. William Ellery, 
sermons of, 35. 

Chapin, Calvin, 325, 326. 

Chapman, Asa, 343, 360. 

Chappell, Edward, 106. 

Charter-Oak, 174. 

Charter of Connecticut, 78, 174, 
176, 244, 245, 257, 260, 261, 
263, 265, 369, 371, 407n., 415; 
legalized as a state constitution, 
175. 

Chatham, Baptist church in, 69. 

Chesapeake affair, 276. 

Cheshire, 66, 364; academy at, 
364. 

Chittenden, Thomas, 152 . 

Church, Judge Samuel, quoted, 
46; views on the judiciary, 208; 
on prosecution of Republicans, 
276n.; on the position of Con- 
gregational clergy, 324; on char- 
acter of Republicans, 328. 

Church and state, 2, 93, 106, 218; 
separation of, 286-288, 400- 
403, 416-419. 

Church of England, see Episcopal 
church. 

Churchman' s Monthly Magazine, 
56. 

Cincinnati, O., 229. 

Cincinnati, Society of, 243. 

Clap, Rector Thomas, philosophy 
of, 6; intolerance of, 24. 

Clark, Patrick, 376. 

Clergy, Congregational, influence 
of, 19, 190, 212, 214, 236, 301, 
307, 317, 368; number and sal- 
aries of, 22, 322 n.; Federalist ac- 
tivities of, 31, 33, 194, 290, 307, 
310, 315, 322; aristocratic ten- 
dencies of, 72-73; Republican 
attacks, 237, 307, 320, 325n., 



331, 336; lack of patriotism in 
1812, 289; as patriots in 1776, 
309. 

Cleveland, General, 145. 

Colchester, 120. 

Commerce, decline of, 354. 

Comptroller of Currency, 184, 
333; under the constitution, 392. 

Congregationalism, low religious 
tone of, 5, 82; and Toleration, 
Act of 1784, 12; see also Clergy, 
Congregational. 

Congregational societies, strength 
of, 43 ; their control of education, 
60, 94; undemocratic seating in, 
73; and the Bonus, 344-345. 

Connecticut, no frontier, 1-2, 270; 
Bible Society, 32; Missionary 
Society, 32; people of,- and tax- 
ation, 83; intolerance of 93; 
Moral Society, 32 ; characteristics 
of its people, 100, 284; banks of, 
102; size of farms, 149-150; pop- 
ulation of, 151-152; Agricul- 
tural Society, 163; opposition to 
War of 1812, 269, 279, 287-288, 
292. 

Connecticut Valley, 45, 113, 142, 
271. 

Constitution, demands for a, 3, 
178, 253, 338, 364; Charter 
questioned as a, 176, 244, 265; 
characteristics of an American, 
262, 265, 384; legislature and 
towns urge a new, 366-367, 
369-371; provides for two capi- 
tals, 386; general resume of, 408- 
409; ratification by voters, 408- 
414; see also Convention. 

Convention, call for a, 371; elec- 
tion of delegates, 373 ^person- 
nel, 375-376; chaplains se- 
lected, 377; rules adopted, 377— 
378; selection of drafting com- 
mittee, 378-380; adopts pream- 
ble to constitution, 380-381; 
considers and adopts Bill of 
Rights, 381-385; separates pow- 
ers of government, 385-386; de- 
bates on Legislature, 386; de- 
bates on Senate, 388-389; de- 



460 



INDEX 



bates on executive, 390-393; de- 
bates on Judiciary, 393-399; on 
suffrage, 399; consideraton of 
religious toleration, 400-403; on 
impeachment, 404; final vote 
on constitution, 406-408; cost 
of, 408n. 
Cornwall, dissent in, 50, 66, 69, 
83, 86; mission school at, 418. 

Corrupt practices acts, 215-216, 
400. 

Corruption, political, 103, 211, 
338, 346, 347; see also Phoenix 
Bank. 

Cotton, manufacturers, 125, 134; 
prices of, 134-135. 

Council, members, 43, 420; de- 
feats Baptist petitions and Epis- 
copal College charter, 61, 79; 
powers of, 183, 192, 199, 263, 
342, 347; attacks upon, 195, 
198, 254, 341, 358-359; attitude 
in War of 1812, 200; terms of 
office, 209; and financial re- 
ports, 340; opposed by Lower 
House, 355, 357, 362, 369; se- 
crecy of debates, 372, 386; men- 
tioned, 105, 106. 

Courts, of errors, 182; common 
pleas or county, 204, 208; pro- 
bate, 205-206; partisanship of, 
264; see also Superior Court; 
Supreme Court of Errors; Su- 
preme Court of U. S. 

Cowles, Rev. Whitfield, persecu- 
tion of, 311. 

Coxe, Tench, statistics from, 120, 
126, 129. 

Crewse, Rev. John, 59. 

Critical Period, character of, 14. 

Cromwell, 69. 

Cromwell, Oliver, 328, 337, 366. 

Croswell, Rev. H., election ser- 
mon, 368. 

Cutler, Rev. Manasseh, 145. 

Cutler, Rev. Timothy, conver- 
sion of, 23, 47. 

Daggett, David, resigns from 
Council, 199-201; describes 
Connecticut government, 210; 



political writings, 257, 268; 
on ministerial influence, 310; 
mentioned, 105, 225, 227, 260, 
261, 270, 277n., 316n., 323. 

D'Alembert, 19. 

Dallas, Alexander, law reports by, 
304n. 

Dana, Rev. James, sermons by, 
34-35; quoted, 40, 92, 181n. 

Dana, Senator S. W., mentioned, 
322. 

D anbury, 245, 365; dissent in, 83; 
manufactures in, 120, 131. 

Dartmouth College, 143, 335. 

Davenport, James, 177. 

Day, President Jeremiah, 29, 367. 

Day, Secretary Thomas, 184, 230, 
304, 322, 326, 349. 

Dearborn, General, calls for mili- 
tia, 200. 

Declaration of Independence, 53, 
116, 175. 

Declaration of Rights, 177. 

Deism, spread to be hindered, 77. 

Delaware, 270; Land Company, 
141. 

Democracy, of Baptist preachers, 
72; of banks, 100. 

Denison, Charles, 60, 106, 343. 

Denison, Elisha, 106. 

Derby, 115; Bank, 101, 105, 109; 
Fishing Company, 101, 114-115, 
117. 

Dickinson, Gov. Daniel, 153. 

Dissenters, tithes paid by, 12; 
grievances of, 92, and Republi- 
canism, 97, 276, 314-315, 327; 
emigration of, 141. 

Districting, of Connecticut, 389, 
411. 

Doddridge, Rev. Philip, sermon of, 
37. 

Domestic Missionary Society, es- 
tablished, 36. 

Duelling, condemnation of, 37, 
399. 

Duncan, John M., views as a 
traveller, 29; on the state cont- 
stitution, 405n. 

Dwight, Margaret, Diary quoted, 
146. 



INDEX 



461 



Dwight, Theodore, describes Re- 
publicans, 238n., 330; secretary 
of the Hartford Convention, 
293; defense of the Hartford 
Convention, 295; on political in- 
fluence of Congregational clergy, 
317; mentioned, 63, 106, 153, 
237, 252, 322, 323, 325. 

Dwight, President Timothy, cam- 
paigns against infidelity, 9,12, 
26; on Catholic church, 17-18; 
character, 18, 320; Triumph of 
Infidelity, 19; political activity, 
29, 301, 302, 318; sermons, 34, 
35; opposes duelling, 37; esti- 
mates Universalist and Episco- 
palian strength, 57, 89; on im- 
migration, 156; on the powers 
of the Legislature, 187; on the 
judiciary, 207, 398; attacks on, 
318-320; on position of clergy, 
321n.; mentioned, 13, 14, 18, 
27, 29, 42, 106, 139, 213, 232, 
242, 243, 262n., 275n., 277n., 
304, 308, 319, 325, 350. 

East Haddam, dissent in, 69. 

East Hartford, dissent in, 69, 83, 
85; mentioned, 120, 130. 

East Haven, dissent in, 57. 

East Indies, trade with, 114. 

East Windsor, 120. 

Ecclesiastical chart, analvsis of, 
339. 

Ecclesiastical funds, 108. 

Edmond, Judge William, 398n. 

Education, article in the consti- 
tution on, 403-404; see also 
School fund; Schools. 

Edwards, H. W., 371. 

Edwards, Rev. Jonathan, 42, 107, 
232. 

Edwards, Rev. Jonathan, Jr., 356, 
371, 372n. 

Edwards, Pierrepont, defends 
Judd, 261 ; work in the conven- 
tion, 376, 378, 379, 380, 389, 
406; mentioned, 227, 232, 237, 
241, 248, 255, 277, 283. 

Edwards, Walter, 322. 



Election Day, 181, sermons, 190; 
ceremonies of, 190-191. 

Elections, of 1790-1800, 229; of 
1799, 230-231; of 1800, 232, 
248, 312; of 1801, 236; of 1802, 
243; of 1803, 248; of 1804, 
257, 259; of 1805, 270; of 1806, 
274, 276; of 1807, 276-277; of 
1808, 279; of 1809, 282-283; 
of 1810, 284; of 1812-1813, 288; 
of 1814, 292; of 1815, 296-297; 
of 1816, 336, 342; of 1817,346, 
358,360;methodofholding,213- 
214; reform of, 218; purity and 
secrecy of, 243; law of, 263-264. 

Ellsworth, Henry, 163. 

Ellsworth, Oliver, 79, 104, 210n., 
227 332. 

Ely, Rev. Zebulon, 319. 

Embargo, Connecticut attitude 
toward, 115, 277-278; and man- 
ufactures, 132; Republicans sup- 
port the, 281-282; mentioned, 
115, 123, 148. 

Emerson, Rev. Ralph, sermon of, 
34. 

Emigration, western, 3, 128, 139- 
140; character of those emigrat- 
ing, 139, 147, 152; extent of, 
151-152; causes of, 154; move- 
ment to halt, 154; Gov. Wolcott 
considers, 353, 354. 

Enfield, 121, 131, 

England, industrial and commer- 
cial rivalry of, 133; and War of 
1812, 288; judges in, 393, 396; 
mentioned, 198. 

Episcopal Bank, 102; see also 
Phoenix Bank. 

Episcopal church, Toryism of, 5, 7, 
53; establishment and growth of, 
46,51,52,55,57, 63,64; Act of 
Toleration favors, 48-49; perse- 
cution suffered by, 48, 59, 74; 
Bishop and Bishop's Fund, 53, 
344; literacy of its ministers, 
56; and War of 1812, 58; and 
the Bonus Act, 345; and the 
tithe system, 356; mentioned, 
46, 90, 249, 314; see also Bishop's 
Fund. 



462 



INDEX 



Episcopal college, opposition of 
the Standing Orderto, 201,315; 
mentioned 59, 95, 416. 

Episcopalians, enter the Republi- 
can-Toleration party, 285, 340, 
342, 346; position of, 336-337; 
support the convention, 375; 
mentioned, 319, 402, 403. 

Establishment, the, 6, 48; opposed 
by Tolerationists, 337-338; see 
also Church and State; Tithe 
system. 

European wars, influence on indus- 
trial life of Connecticut, 99. 

Exports, 113, 116. 

Factories, 98, 99; social life in, 
123, 126. 

Fairchild, Robert, work in the 
convention, 385-386; opposes 
the constitution, 407. 

Fairfield, 116, 196n.; dissent in, 83. 

Fairfield County, Episcopalians 
in, 48, 52; manufacturing in, 
125, 127, 137, 138; Toleration 
strength in, 339; vote on the 
constitution, 412n., 413; men- 
tioned, 259, 270, 357. 

Fanning, Col. Edward, a loyalist, 
53, 320. 

Farmington, town of, 260. 

Farms, size of Connecticut, 159. 

Fast days, 181. 

Fearon, Henry B., describes Meth- 
odists, 87. 

Federal Constitution, religious tol- 
eration of, 14, 309; Connecticut 
ratification of, 227, 383. 

Federalist Party, and Episcopali- 
ans, 61; character of Federal- 
ists, 77, 327; opposes manufac- 
tures, 132, 136; organization, 
229; lack of patriotism in 1812, 
288; decline of, 295, 415; and 
the convention, 373. 

Field, Rev. David, estimates num- 
ber of Baptists, 80; quoted, 157. 

Financial reports, of treasurer, 
340. 

Fitch, Asa, 106. 

Fitch, Jabez, 276, 277n. 



Flint, Rev. Abel, quoted, 340. 

Florida, 142. 

Foote, S. A., 371. 

Foreigners, opposition to, 115. 

Fourth of July orations and toasts, 
271-272. 

Freeman, Edmund, in the con- 
vention, 379. 

Free masonry, 14, 229. 

French and Indian War, marks en- 
trance of infidelity, 6. 

French Revolution, 366; effect on 
Connecticut religious life, 15; 
Connecticut attitude toward, 
16, 228, 233; and Catholic 
church, 16-17. 

Friends, persecution of, 91; see 
also Quakers. 

Fundamental Orders of Connec- 
ticut, 174, 263, 265, 371, 382. 

Gale, Dr. Benjamin, discourses 
on Connecticut's constitution, 
176; on long tenures of office, 
211. 

Gales Ferry, Methodists in, 83. 

General Assembly, description and 
powers, 180, 182, 185; judicial 
powers of, 202. 

George III, 228. 

Glastonbury, manufacturing in, 
127. 

Goddard, Judge Calvin, 106, 239, 
251n., 291, 322, 335, 339,357; 
and the Hartford Convention, 
295; displaced from the bench, 
398. 

Goodrich, Chauncey, quoted, 200, 
291, 313; describes Republicans, 
234; delegate to the Hartford 
Convention, 293; mentioned, 
201,252, 277n., 325, 332. 

Goodrich, Rev. Elizur, 52. 

Goodrich, Elizur, 200, 201, 272, 
322 ; removal from the collector- 
ship of New Haven, 239-240. 

Goodrich, Roger, 106. 

Goodrich, Samuel, 325. 

Goshen, Methodists in, 345. 

Gould, Judge James, 25 In., 304, 
398n. 



INDEX 



463 



Governing class, 193, 210, 213; 
see also Standing Order. 

Government, working, 174. 

Governor, powers, duties and 
election of, 180, 209; Foot- 
Guards, 289; under the new 
constitution, 385-386, 390-393. 

Granby, dissenters in, 86, 346. 

Granger, Gideon, 153, 217, 229, 
232, 233, 235, 237, 240, 241, 243. 

Great Awakening, 5, 23, 49, 65, 
67, 82 ; see also Revivals. 

Greene, Louise, quoted, 323n. 

Greenwich, 365. 

Griswold, Rev. John, sermons of,35. 

Griswold, Matthew, 276, 335, 359. 

Griswold, Gov. Roger, and militia 
episode, 200; addresses the Leg- 
islature, 287-288; mentioned, 
284, 285, 289, 290, 323. 

Griswold, Rev. Stanley, clerical 
persecution of, 310-311; men- 
tioned, 106, 153, 236. 

Groton, dissenters in, 66, 91; man- 
ufacturing in, 127; mentioned, 
345, 365. 

Guilford, dissenters in, 50, 69. 

Haddam, dissenters in, 58, 83. 

Hamden, dissenters in, 57, 86; 
manufacturing in, 130, 365. 

Hamilton, Alexander, financial pol- 
icy of, 99; on dependence of 
judges, 208; mentioned, 37, 
104, 263, 333. 

Hampton, dissenters in, 69. 

Hart, Gen r William, 143, 231, 232, 
233, 235, 250, 261, 270, 274, 
279, 280. 

Hartford, Deaf and Dumb Asy- 
lum, 33n.; Bank, 100, 104, 107; 
Phoenix Bank of, 102, 106; and 
New Haven Insurance Co., Ill; 
Fire Insurance Co., 112; manu- 
facturing in, 120, 127, 130-131; 
Toleration-Republican strength 
in, 275, 340, 374; constitutional 
convention at, 377; election 
disorder in, 400; mentioned, 
182, 191, 196n., 247, 283, 296, 
365, 375, 386. 



Hartford Convention, delegates 
from Connecticut, work of, 293; 
mentioned, 201, 289, 326n., 
336, 339, 342, 347, 359. 

Hartford County, manufacturing 
in, 125, 127, 137-138; Agricul- 
tural Society of, 163, 164; vote 
on the constitution, 412n. 

Harvard, religious life of, 23. 

Haskell, Eli, 106. 

Haynes, Gov. John, 349. 

Hebron, 128, 379. 

Herbert, Lord, philosophy of, 19. 

Hillhouse, Senator James, oppo- 
sition to manufactures, 106, 
132; delegate to Hartford Con- 
vention, 293; mentioned, 247n., 
248, 251n., 259, 277n., 321, 
348, 364. 

Hillhouse, William, 235. 

Hobart, Bishop John H., sermon 
of, 34. 

Hobbes, philosophy of, 19. 

Holley, President Horace, of Tran- 
sylvania College, 153. 

Hollister, G. H., on the results of 
the political revolution, 415. 

Holly, Israel, pamphlet by, 75. 

Holmes, Uriel, 145. 

Hooker, Rev. Asabel, sermon of, 
34, 323n. 

Hooker, Rev. Thomas, quoted, 
384n. 

Hopkins, Samuel, 42. 

Hosmer, Judge Stephen, 398n. 

Hosmer, Judge Titus, 135. 

Hotham, Admiral, entertained by 
Hartford society, 296. 

Hubbard, Elijah, 112. 

Hubbard, G., 371. 

Hudson, Henry, mentioned, 33, 
112, 325. 

Hume, David, 11, 19. 

Humphreys, General David, 
founder of Humphreysville 
Manufacturing Co., 123; ad- 
dress on agriculture, 162-163; 
sketch of, 167-168; mentioned, 
164, 350. 

Hungerford, William, in the con- 
vention, 379, 381, 401n. 



464 



INDEX 



Huntington, Ebenezer, 106, 112. 
Huntington, Gen. Jedidiah, 33, 

105, 210n., 325-326. 
Huntington, Jonathan, 112. 
Huntington, Gov. Samuel, 56, 153. 
Hyde, Elisha, 217, 272. 

Illuminati, 14. 

Immigration, 156. 

Impeachment, under the consti- 
tution, 404. 

Infidelity, at the close of the Revo- 
lution, 11; during the Critical 
Period, 12, 14; in Yale, 22. 

Insurance companies, 2, 111. 

Intemperance, prevalence of, 37, 
109n. 

Internal trade, 135, 147-148. 

Irjsh, immigration of, 156-157; 
juries, 209; Pennsylvania Irish 
and the War of 1812, 289. 

Iron industry, 121. 

Jackson, President Andrew, 
mentioned, 382. 

Jacobins and Jacobinism, 16, 19, 
258, 263, 274, 283, 314, 329; 
their clubs, 228, 231. 

Jarvis, Bishop Abraham, toryism 
of, 54; mentioned, 56, 249. 

Jefferson, President Thomas, irre- 
ligious views of, 21, 30; election 
of, 30; buys Connecticut home- 
spuns, 123; attacked by Clerical- 
Federalists, 234, 312; uses pat- 
ronage, 239; administration of, 
253, 280; mentioned, 116, 167, 
228, 230, 306, 394, 395. 

Jeffersonian party, 228, 236, 340; 
see also Republican party. 

Jews, 92, 385. 

Johnson, Samuel, religious views 
and conversion of, 6, 23, 47; 
mentioned, 51, 61. 

Johnson, William Samuel, patriot- 
ism of, 53; mentioned, 63, 
210n., 227, 242, 343, 358, 360. 

Judd, William, controversy, over 
New Haven Address, 255; his 
manuscript defense, 262. 

Judiciary Act, Federal, 333. 



Judiciary department, depend- 
ence of, 199, 207; courts, powers, 
etc., 202; reform of, 356-357; 
under new 4 r constitution, 386, 393, 
405-406. 

Justices of peace, powers and ap- 
pointment of, 206-207, 393. 

Kant, philosophy of, 19. 

Kendall, Edward A., on the pow- 
ers of the Legislature and Coun- 
cil, 188, 198-199; view of Con- 
necticut democracy, 212. 

Kent, Episcopal church in, 58. 

Kentucky, 148. 

Kilbourne, James, 145. 

Killingly, manufacturing in, 127. 

Killingworth, dissenters in, 58, 69, 
89. 

King, Rufus, 339n. 

Kingsbury, Treasurer Andrew, 
104, 105, 163, 184n., 325, 340, 
348, 367. 

Kirby, Ephraim, advocates wider 
suffrage, 218, 223; appointed 
judge of Louisiana, 241; legal 
reports by, 304; mentioned, 230, 
232, 238, 247, 248, 274. 

Laboring Class, evidences of, 
121, 131, 171, 306. 

Lake Erie lands, 141 . 

Lanman, James, in convention, 
377, 378, 379, 388, 397. 

Larned, Amasa, in convention, 
377, 378. 

Laud, Puritan fear of, 53. 

Law, Jonathan, 241. 

Law, Judge Richard, 238. 

Lawyers, dependence on Federal- 
ist courts, 208; Federalist, in 
politics, 303, 306; in the con- 
vention, 379. 

Learned, George, in the conven- 
tion, 378, 380. 

Ledyard, Separatists in, 66. 

Lee, Rev. Jesse, on religious life 
of the state, 16; his tours, 81, 83. 

Leffingwell, William, 105. 

Legislature, election of represen- 
tatives, 189; reform of the, 362; 



INDEX 



465 



under the constitution, 386-390; 
see also Assembly; Council; 
Elections; Stand-up Law. 

Leland, Rev. John, estimates Bap- 
tist strength, 70; sermons of, 
76; urges disestablishment, 76, 
96; quoted, 77; mentioned, 244. 

Lieutenant Governor, powers and 
duties of, 183, 209; under the 
constitution, 390-393. 

Litchfield, 196n., 333; Republican 
celebration at, 275-276. 

Litchfield County, dissent in, 50- 
51, 57, 86; Toleration-Republi- 
can strength in, 86, 275, 339, 
349; manufacturing in, 125, 127, 
130, 137-138; Agricultural So- 
ciety of, 164; vote on the con- 
stitution, 412n.; mentioned, 80, 
141, 142, 152, 271, 276. 

Litchfield Law School, 304, 332. 

Literacy of the people, 302. 

Livingston, Robert, 167, 169. 

Locke, Letters on Toleration, 24. 

London Missionary Society, work 
of, 51, 55. 

Long Wharf, of New Haven, 115, 
117. 

Louisiana Purchase, attitude of 
state toward, 252, 317. 

Loyalists, 227. 

Lyman, Phineas, land agent, 141, 

Lyman, Thomas, 379. 

Lyman Rev. William, sermon of, 
275. 

Lyme, 365. 

Lyon, Matthew, 231. 

McClellan, Col. John, work in 

the convention, 371, 374, 385, 

388, 405n., 407. 
McClure, Rev. David, 277n. 
McDonough, Commodore, 135. 
McNeille, Rev. R. C, views on 

Congregationalism, 418. 
Madison, James, 241. 
Maine, immigration to, 144. 
Mansfield, Separatists in, 66. 
Manufactures, development of, 2, 

118, 128; aided by the state, 

136, 354, 356. 



Marlbone, Col. Godfrey, 52. 

Marlborough, manufacturing in, 
127. 

Marsh, Rev. Ebenezer, sermons of, 
34. 

Massachusetts, religious system 
of, 82; Agricultural Society, 163, 
164, 168; and the embargo, 281; 
in the Hartford Convention, 295; 
mentioned, 90, 93, 284. 

Mayors, 206, 210. 

Medical School, 62. 

Meigs, Jonathan, 145. 

Meigs, Prof. Josiah, 301. 

Meriden, 120, 280. 

Merino sheep, introduction of, 
prices, etc., 121, 166, 169. 

Merwin, Orange, in the conven- 
tion, 379. 

M ethodist-Episcopal church, 
growth of, 57, 81, 85n., 88; per- 
secution suffered by, 86; primi- 
tive ministry, 87, 236; and 
Bonus Act, 345; its college, 416. 

Methodists, in New England, 70; 
become Republicans, 85, 89; de- 
mand disestablishment, 400; 
mentioned, 5, 46, 47, 64, 74, 
238, 356. 

Middlesex County, dissenters in, 
63-64; manufacturing in, 125, 
127, 137-138;Tolerationstrength 
in, 339, 412n. 

Middletown, dissenting churches 
in, 50, 66, 69, 86, 89; Bank of, 
101, 107; Marine Insurance Co., 
112; Manufacturing Company, 
124, 130; mentioned, 92, 102, 
116, 365. 

Milford, Methodist church in, 83. 

Militia, officers of, 183; contro- 
versy, 342. 

Miller, Asher, 135, 260. 

Mississippi, constitution of, 380n. 

Mitchell, Senator Stephen Mkj 
in the convention, 377, 388; 
favors the constitution, 407. 

Monroe, James, visits the state, 357. 

Montesquieu, 187, 263, 304. 

Moore, Roswell, 106. 

Moral Society, 35, 326. 



466 



INDEX 



Morgan, John, 104, 105, 111, 114. 
Morris, Robert, 104. 
Morse, Rev. Asahel, 401. 
Morse, Rev. Jedidiah, his Geog- 
raphy, 307, 317. 
Mystic Manufacturing Co., 124. 

Napoleon, defeat of, 288. 

National Bank, 99, 102, 105; sec- 
ond, 110, 111, 333. 

Negroes, 88. 

New Britain, 8. 

New England, 115, 141; Tract 
Society, 33, 326; Primer, 96; 
and Embargo, 278; Republican- 
ism of, 279. 

Newgate prison, 362. 

New Hampshire, disestablishment, 
93; emigration to, 142, 144, 153, 
284. 

New Haven, Congregationalists 
in, 24, 44; dissenters in, 44, 51, 
58, 69, 84, 86; bank of, 100, 105; 
Eagle Bank of, 101, 106, 107, 
110; Marine Insurance Co., 112; 
shipping, 114, 116; manufactur- 
ing in, 130, 131; Republican 
convention at, 248, 254; and 
the embargo, 280; Monroe at, 
357; a capital city, 386; address, 
395; vote on the constitution, 
411, 413; mentioned, 54, 92, 
102, 113, 115, 196n., 240, 301, 
346, 365, 374, 375, 379, 387n. 

New Haven County, manufactur- 
ing in, 125, 127, 137-138; Agri- 
cultural Society, 162; vote on 
the constitution, 412n., 413; 
mentioned, 305, 339. 

New Lights, see Separatists. 

New London, dissenting churches 
in, 56, 69, 83-84; Union Bank, 
100, 105; Bank of, 101, 106; 
Union Insurance Co., 112; men- 
tioned, 90, 113, 115, 116, 196n., 
357, 365. 

New London County, manufac- 
turing in, 125, 127, 137, 138; 
Republican strength in, 248, 
339; vote on the constitution, 
412n.,413. 



New Milford, dissenting churches 
in, 66, 91. 

Newspapers, Republican, 235; 
Federalists, 300, 303, 316; at- 
tack clergy, 317n. 

Newtown, dissenters in, 52, 89, 
365. 

New York, banks of, 105, 109; im- 
migration to, 143, 144, 153; Mer- 
chants Bank, 333; mentioned, 
113, 142, 148, 234, 330. 

Nicoll, John, 112. 

Niles, John M., on the constitu- 
tion, 407. 

Non-Intercourse Acts, 115, 119, 
281; see also Embargo. 

North America, Bank of, 104. 

North Haven, 318. 

Norwalk, Methodists in, 83. 

Norwich, dissenting churches in, 
58, 66, 69, 86, 89; Bank, 101, 
106; Insurance Co., Ill; Mu- 
tual Assurance Co., Ill; men- 
tioned, 120, 127, 130, 131, 196n., 
335. 

Nott/Rev.^ Samuel, 283. 

Numa, articles by, 265. 

Ohio, emigration to, 144, 146; de- 
scription of frontier, 172n.; 
mentioned, 148, 150, 396. 

Osborne, Selleck, imprisoned Re- 
publican editor, 275. 

Osgood, Rev. Thaddeus, 313n. 

Paine, Thomas, Age of Reason, 20; 
death of, 32. 

Panic after 1815, 108-109, 118, 
133, 147. 

Parliament, 186. 

Party life, prior to 1800, 229, 273- 
274, 295, 297-298; see also Elec- 
tions; Federalist party; Repub- 
lican party; Toleration party. 

Patronage, federal, 239. 

Patten, Nathaniel, 112. 

Pearson, Rev. Eliphalet, 32 In. 

Pennsylvania, emigration to, 144, 
150; mentioned, 234. 

Perkins, Elias, 106, 360. 

Perkins, Enoch, 145, 322, 325. 



INDEX 



467 



Perkins, William, 326. 

Peters, Rev. Hugh, 53. 

Peters, Dr. John S., in the con- 
vention, 379-380. 

Pettibone, Judge Augustus, in the 
convention, 379. 

Phelps, Anson, 310. 

Phelps, Elisha, 378. 

Phelps, Oliver, land agent, 104, 
143, 153. 

Phelps, Samuel, 152. 

Philadelphia, Agricultural Society, 
162; character of elections in, 
374. 

Phoenix Bank, 62, 102, 103-104, 
344. 

Pierpont, R., 407. 

Pitkin, Samuel, 33, 106, 322, 325. 

Pitkin, Timothy, hostility to Jef- 
ferson, 277, 367; in the conven- 
tion, 375, 377, 378, 379, 389, 403. 

Pittsfield cattle show, 164. 

Plajnfield, 127, 335. 

Politico-religious societies, 201, 
324; political preaching, 312. 

Pomfret, dissenting churches in, 
51, 69, 91; Manufacturing Co., 
126. 

Population, racial character of, 157. 

Porter, Rev. Noah, sermons, 35, 
44; on revival of 1821, 419. 

Porter, Gen. Peter Buel, 153. 

Presbyterians, 45, 46, 49. 

Prices, 1774 to 1816, 172-173. 

Priestley, Dr. Joseph, religious 
influence of, 21, 41. 

Probate Courts, 205-206. 

Providence, R. I., 125. 

Provincialism of Connecticut lead- 
ers, 270. 

Public schools, secularized, 419. 

Puritans, ideals, 2, 39, 96; repel 
immigrants, 156. 

Quakers, complete toleration for, 
372; mentioned, 46, 67, 91. 

Redding, 83, 365. 

Reeve, Judge Tapping, quoted, 

302n.; mentioned, 33, 232, 304, 

322, 326. 



Republican party, opposed by 
clergy, 19, 310; character of 
members, 19, 234, 327, 352, 
360n.; attacks Yale, 30; appeals 
to dissenters, 31, 85, 97, 285; 
supports Baptist petitions, 79- 
80; supports manufactures, 132, 
135; favors suffrage extension, 
218; organized, 232; hostility 
toward clergy, 236, 331; con- 
vention at New Haven, 255; 
and Toleration success, 332. 

Revivals, 28, 30, 33, 44, 59, 85, 
87, 418; see also Great Awaken- 
ing. 

Revolution of 1817-1818,4, 211, 
348, 350, 364, 398, 415-419. 

Rhode Island, no written consti- 
tution, 176; dependent judici- 
ary in, 394; mentioned, 131, 
256. 

Richards, George H., on Yale, 94; 
political essay by, 367. 

Roads, construction of good, 166. 

Robbins, Rev. Thomas, describes 
Baptists and Methodists, 68, 87; 
opinion of Jefferson, 313; de- 
scribes Republicans, 330; views 
on the Revolution of 1817-1818, 
350, 359, 361, 410n., 414n.; on 
-universal suffrage, 374; quoted 
or mentioned, 146, 169, 214, 235, 
276, 283, 284n., 316, 340, 368, 
377n. 

Rochefoucauld, Duke de la, on 
Connecticut intolerance, 93. 

Root, Ephraim, 104, 112, 145. 

Root, Jesse, 304; in the conven- 
tion, 375, 377, 378, 382, 385, 
395. 

Rousseau, 19, 27. 

Rum industry, 121, 131; see also 
Intemperance. 

Salisbury, dissenting churches in, 

44, 142; iron mines in, 121. 
Saltonstall, Gov. Gurdon, 349. 
Sampson, Rev. Ezra, 302. 
Saybrook, Methodists in, 86. 
Saybrook platform, 13, 94, 376. 
Scantick, 374n. 



468 



INDEX 



School fund, 76, 108, 338, 403-404, 
416. 

Schools, 3; dissenters oppose, 94; 
school teachers, 95-96; Sunday 
schools, established, 96, 419; 
Congregational, 302, 307. 

Scioto Land Co., 145. 

Seabury, Bishop Samuel, toryism, 
53; made bishop, 55; mentioned, 
49. 

Secretary of State, powers and 
duties, 184, 209, 390-392. 

Selectmen, 206, 210. 

Senate, under the constitution, 
388; present day position, 389n. 

Separatists, persecution of, 65; 
compared to Baptists, 70; men- 
tioned, 46, 47, 49. 

Seymour, Horatio, 152. 

Seymour, Methodists in, 86. 

Shaftesbury, Lord, 11, 19. 

Shakers, 91. 

Sharon, dissenting churches in, 
54, 85, 349. 

Sheep breeding, 166; see also 
Merino sheep. 

Sheriffs, duties, powers, etc., 183, 
185, 209, 393. 

Sherman, Charles, 105. 

Sherman, Rev. John, 90. 

Sherman, Roger, 33, 197, 210n., 
227, 326. 

Sherman, Roger M., religious ex- 
periences, 27; delegate to the 
Hartford Convention, 293; 
mentioned, 106, 290, 343, 359. 

Sherwood, Samuel, 200. 

Shipman, Elias, 105. 

Shipping, 113, 147, 163; statistics 
of, 118n. 

Silliman, Prof. Benjamin, 27, 29. 

Skinner, Gov. Richard, 152. 

Smith, Gov. John Cotton, on fail- 
ure of shipping, 118; on manu- 
factures, 133, 135; attitude 
toward War of 1812, 293, 295n.; 
mentioned, 33, 41, 251, 290, 
291, 292, 296, 322, 325, 335, 
337, 339, 346,348, 415n. 

Smith, Nathan, in the convention, 
376, 378, 380, 395. 



Smith, Nathaniel, resigns from 
Council, 199; delegate to Hart- 
ford Convention, 293; men- 
tioned, 360, 398n. 

Society for Propagation of the 
Gospel, 50. 

Somers, dissenters in, 89. 

South America, prospective trade 
with, 137. 

Southington, dissenting churches 
in, 57, 69. 

Spalding, Asa, mentioned, 232, 
253, 283, 284, 285. 

Spencer, Isaac, 184, 291. 

Spencer, Isaac, Jr., 367. 

Stafford, 365. 

Stamford, dissenters in, 50; Re- 
publican strength in, 318, 387. 

Standing Order, ministers of, 87, 
95; rulers of the, 326; passing 
away of the, 384, 403; men 
tioned, 31, 47, 50, 56, 71, 83, 92" 
93, 107, 140, 197, 228, 303> 
324. 

Stand-up Law, 194, 216, 243. 

Stanley, George W., political pam- 
phlets of, 226, 273; on position 
of the clergy, 317-318. 

Sterling, 126. 

Stevens, James, in the convention, 
376, 387, 397, 407; mentioned, 
371, 372. _ 

Stiles, President Ezra, religious 
views and labors, 6, 7, 10, 11, 
22, 39, 44; character, 18,25; on 
the Baptists and Methodists, 
67, 71, 72, 84; views on Epis- 
copalian Church, 51, 53, 55; on 
immigration, 156; mentioned, 
42, 49, 74, 94, 120, 305, 335. 

Stonington, 69, 365. 

Storrs, Lemuel, 145. 

Stowe, Joshua, in the convention, 
376, 379, 380, 400, 402. 

Stratford, dissenting churches in, 
46, 47, 83. 

Street, Titus, 112. 

Strong, Dr. Nathan, sermons of, 
35; mentioned, 17n., 326, 350. 

Sullivan, Gov. James, 319. 

Superior Court, 203, 357, 393, 398. 



INDEX 



Supreme Court of Errors, 202, 
208, 393. 

Supreme Court of the U. S., veto 
of legislation by, 397. 

Swift, Judge Zephaniah, on con- 
stitutional reform, 179-180; de- 
fines powers of the Legislature, 
188, 196; delegate to the Hart- 
ford Convention, 293; on de- 
pendence of judges, 204, 207, 
398; mentioned or quoted, 14, 
39, 49, 106, 202, 211, 213, 242, 
304, 305n., 398n. 

Talcott, Gov. Joseph, 183. 

Tallmadge, Benjamin, 243, 25 In. 

Tammany tribes, 329. 

Tariff of 1816, 135. 

Taxation, system of, 103-104, 
347, 358; Gov. Wolcott recom- 
mends reform in, 354-355 ; legis- 
lative report on, 363; reforms in, 
416. 

Tea tax, 69. 

Terry, Henry, in the convention, 
387, 394, 395, 406, 407. 

Terry, Nathaniel, and Hartford 
Convention, 295; in the conven- 
tion, 375, 377, 387, 403, 406, 407, 
410; mentioned, 104, 105, 112. 

Thanksgiving, 181. 

Thayer, Father John, 92. 

Thompson, manufacturing in, 127. 

Tindall, the philosophy of, 11. 

Tithe system, 47, 50, 89, 149, 348; 
abolished, 416-419. 

Todd, William, in the convention, 
378, 407. 

Toleration, Act of 1784, 12, 48, 65, 
69, 75; under the constitution, 
38, 384-385, 400-403; Party, 
45, 91, 106, 307, 332, 341,342; 
Act of 1791, 81; Wolcott on, 
352; see also Baptist church; 
Elections, of 1816-1818; Epis- 
copal church; Methodist church; 
Quakers. 

Tolland County, manufacturing 
in, 125, 128, 137, 138; Toleration 
strength in, 339; vote on the con- 
stitution, 412n., 413. 



Tomlinson, David, 105, 343, 6 . 

Tomlinson, Gideon, 376, 378, 379, 
400. 

Tomlinson, Isaac, 112. 

Tories, 53, 149; see also Loyalists. 

Towns, population of, 15 In.; 
town meetings, 213-214; rep- 
resentation of, 386-388; vote 
on constitution, 413n., 414n. 

Tracy, Senator Uriah, quoted, 
231; mentioned, 247n., 252. 

Treadwell, Gov. John, 33, 133, 
239, 283, 284, 285, 287n.,293, 
322, 326, 337; in the convention, 
375, 376, 378, 381, 385, 38S, 399, 
402, 403, 411; and the passing 
of the old order, 41 6n. 

Treasurer, duties and electipn of, 
184, 209; under the constitu- 
tion, 390-392. 

Trinity College, Hartford, 61. 

Trumbull, Judge John, on the re- 
form movement, 359n., 398, 
414; mentioned, 322. 

Trumbull, Gov. Jonathan, Jr., 114, 
165, 210, 235, 239, 247, 251, 
253, 270, 274, 279, 280, 283, 285. 

Tryon, the raider, 320. 

Tudor, William, on the Metho- 
dists, 88; views of Connecticut 
intolerance and people, 192n., 
284. 

Turnpike companies and roads, 
166. 

Union, 38 7n. 

Unitarians, status of, 43, 46, 89- 

90, 385; Tolerationists, 91. 
United States Bonds, 110; see 

also National Bank. 
Universalists, 46, 89. 

Vermont, religious system and 
its disestablishment, 82, 93, 
324n.; emigration to, 142, 144; 
dependence of judiciary in, 152, 
394. 

Virginia, 330; disestablishment, 
12, 76, 395; and Kentucky Res- 
olutions, 231. 

Voltaire, 11, 19, 27. 



470 



INDEX 



Vose, Thomas, 123. 

Votes, increase in number, 251, 

297; system of counting, 389; 

see also Constitution; Elections. 

Wadsworth, Daniel, 33. 112, 
395. 

Wadsworth, Gen. James, 227. 

Wadsworth, Col. Jeremiah, pro- 
motes woolen industry, 120; 
mentioned, 104, 105, 111, 177, 
227. 

Wages for labor, 148-149. 

Wallingford, 318, 365; Republi- 
can celebration at, 236. 

Wansey, Henry, quoted, 192n. 

War of 1812, effect on manufac- 
tures, 125; Connecticut's atti- 
tude toward, 200, 288; West 
and, 289; Wolcott supports, 334; 
mentioned, 56, 58, 133, 144, 
146, 171. 

Warren, Moses, in the convention, 
378, 389, 397. 

Washington, George, mentioned, 
120, 167, 251, 332, 342. 

Waterbury, dissenting churches 
in, 50, 69, S3, 86, 91. 

Waterman, Rev. Elijah, quoted, 
40. 

Watson, Elkanah, 162. 

Wealth, men of, 98, 104. 

Webb, Peter, in the convention, 
376, 378, 379. 

Webster, Noah, writings of, 34, 
302; opposed to democracy, 211, 
224, 225, 226; quoted, 230, 235; 
hostility to Embargo and Jef- 
ferson, 277, 278n.; his study of 
the Hartford Convention, 295n.; 
mentioned, 79n., 92, 227, 229n., 
250, 275n., 316, 350. 

Wells, Dr. Sylvester, 378, 379. 

Welsh, John, 379. 

Wesleyan College, 86. 

Western emigration and lands, 3, 
139, 149, 154. 

Western Reserve, sale of, 75; emi- 
gration to, 143. 

West India trade, 98-99, 113, 114, 
117. 



Westville, 120, 

Wethersfield, 196n. 

White, Rev. Mr., on religious life 
of the state, 15. 

White, Judge Hugh, 143, 153. 

Whitfield, Rev. George, 23. 

Whiting, Eli, 121. 

Whiting, Joseph, 184n. 

Wilcox, Gen. Joseph, 217, 274. 

Wiley, Asa, 379. 

Williams, Rev. Samuel, sermon 
quoted, 41. 

Williams, WiUiam, 197, 227, 242. 

Windham, town of, 10. 

Windham County, dissenting 
churches in, 44, 57, 69, 70, 89; 
manufacturing in, 125, 126, 137, 
138; Toleration strength in, 339, 
349; vote on the constitution, 
412n. 

Windsor, 83, 196n., 365. 

Wines, Rev. Abijah, sermon of, 34. 

Winthrop, John, 181, 349. 

Wolcott, Alexander, appointed 
collector, 241 ; organizes Repub- 
lican machine, 273-274; in the 
convention, 376, 381, 382, 389, 
394, 395, 396, 407; mentioned, 
135, 232, 247n, 269, 277. 

Wolcott, General Erastus, 177. 

Wolcott, Frederick, 106, 333, 359, 
360. 

Wolcott, Gov. Oliver, 230. 

Wolcott, Gov. Oliver, Jr., a man- 
ufacturer, 124; sketch of life 
and candidacy, 332-334, 346; 
addresses, 350, 361, 368; views 
on toleration, 352; views on ju- 
dicial reform, 356, 398; pre- 
sides over the Convention, 376, 
377; mentioned, 123, 163,165, 
181, 210n., 229, 278, 349, 367, 
408. 

Woodbury, 365. 

Woodstock, dissent in, 69; manu- 
facturing in, 127. 

Woolaston, Religion of Nature, 6. 

Woolen manufacturing, 120, 121, 
134; aided by tariff, 169. 

Wyllys family, 184. 

Wyoming Valley, 141. 



INDEX 



471 



Yale, religious life of, 22, 26, 28, 
94; political opposition to, 23 
315-316; Separatists in, 24 
Bishop Berkeley donation, 25 
Federalist politics of, 30, 301. 
Episcopalians in, 59; aristocratic 
system of, 73; Commencements, 



147, 301; charter and corpora- 
tion, 201, 249, 403; bonus given 
to, 344; mentioned, 6, 45, 56, 
152, 166, 303, 312, 315, 332, 
334, 379; see also D wight, 
President Timothy; Stiles; Med- 
ical School. 



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